Hacking the Future: The Magical Allure of Coding
Zhan Xin · Ethnos · 2025
Coding is often viewed as a purely technical and logical discipline, yet ethnographies of coding and critical code studies have shifted this perspective – from code as text to code as social relations. Building on this, the article frames code as an infrastructure of mobility and a method of hope. Drawing on fieldwork in London’s non-profit coding schools, bootcamps, and hackathons – initiatives that expanded post-Covid to meet rising demand for tech labour and support marginalised communities – it shows how ‘learning to code’ becomes a vehicle for imagined social mobility. For novices, coding transforms uncertainty into actionable steps, experiences that often feel ‘magical’. The article theorises magic as an affective – practical technology that renders disciplined labour enchanted and reframes hacking as a method of hope. In doing so, it offers a revised account of magic in computational lifeworlds and extends critical code studies by foregrounding code’s role in shaping futures and opportunities.