Draft+Overview+EF+2


 * DRAFT OVERVIEW MEMO II **

(CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, TECHNOLOGICAL CITIZENSHIP -- might need to work these in more at beginning..)

This study aims to take a historical and current look at sites of scientific engagement, with a particular emphasis on community centers and hacker/maker groups which engage science and technology in a more hands-on, interactive level. In exploring these regimes of making, it considers the possibilities for these spaces and groups to empower the individual and possibly make a move toward more critical-making and critical technical practices. It asks: what modes of making are in play, what motivates them and what are their futures? What is the relevance of their presence not only in the physical world and realm, but also in the digital world – in other words is Maker culture a pushback to increasing digital mediation of knowledge and interaction, or does it utilize the digital merely as an extension of making?

As a secondary aim, this study is also interested in the possible split between making that occurs in the realm of innovation/entrepreneurship versus that which is done as more skill-sharing/community education/subversive act. Beyond delineating these differences and why one or the other is relevant for a given situation, this study also questions whether there are activities that bridge this divide, and what compromises they have made either way. This study also seeks to further understand and elucidate the shift from hacker to makerspaces, from the subversive to the mainstream within regimes of making. This is particularly salient when considering the popularization of arduino technology and the placement of makerspaces in both libraries and, through DARPA funding, in high schools. Part about global economy vs. local community economies?? Re: DARPA and grooming engineers for the future of competitive innovation?)

These aims will be accomplished through a general survey of various hacker and maker spaces, as well as comparative studies with science museums, community centers and citizen science groups which have scientific and technical engagement programs. This cursory survey will lead to pinpointing select spaces (both online and offline) to conduct participant observations, researched interviews and discourse analysis of materials. It is already determined that there will be a focus on the Troy, NY “Center for Gravity” and the on-line citizen science group PLOTS, but the hope is to garner a few more sites for a multi-sited trial. This research will be carried out by Ellen Foster with interview and participant observation preparation through the STS department at RPI. She also maintains a technical knowledge in circuitry and fabrication, which is often the focus of maker and hackerspaces, and may help to fully understand group projects and directions. Cursory examinations of sites for study have already been undertaken and will continue to be part of Ms. Foster’s research up until specific sites are chosen. Visits to such sites are on-going.

This study is salient considering the resurgence of DIY/maker culture, its push into the mainstream and the possibilities that this discursive shift may provide for a move toward a more technological citizenship. At this moment, there is much emphasis on STEM programming and the need for engaging science education, but it often seems that the imminent need to coincide scientific knowledge with critical-thinking is overlooked. By considering how these spaces might act more critically, possibly through a reimagining of Freire’s “critical-consciousness,” this study hopes to instigate various interventions and provide a critical facet to their goals and outlooks of the members of these spaces, and possibly open them to more actively engaging their immediate communities' needs.