abstract

We Are Not All Makers: The Paradox of Plurality In The Maker Movement

Author:

Tara WhelanAuthors Info & Claims

DIS '18 Companion: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems

Pages 75 - 80

https://doi.org/10.1145/3197391.3205415

Published: 30 May 2018 Publication History

Abstract

This paper draws from a critical examination of media and literature surrounding the maker movement, and interviews with 10 women engaged in maker activities. It aims to explore the barriers to women's participation in the maker movement and, in particular, the barriers to women's adoption of a maker identity. Three phenomena are discussed; firstly the problematic disjunct between inclusivity of maker rhetoric and hierarchies in maker practice. Secondly, how the purported eclecticism of materials and techniques in the maker movement may actually lessen the likelihood of women self-identifying as makers. Thirdly, how women tend to have a qualitatively different approach to technological practice as compared to their male peers and the subtle ways in which this runs counter to normative maker values. I suggest that minimising the identity-centric approach of the maker movement may help to ameliorate these barriers, but ultimately, more research must be undertaken to verify or challenge the conclusions drawn here.

References

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Intel/Harris Poll. (2014). MakeHers: Engaging girls and women in technology through making, creating, and inventing. Retrieved February 2018 from http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/ en/documents/reports/Makers-report-girlswomen.pdf

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Catherine Ashcraft, Brad McLain, and Elizabeth Eger. 2016. Women in Tech: The Facts. Retrieved February 2018 from https://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/resources /womenintech_facts_fullreport_05132016.pdf

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Dale Dougherty. 2016. Free to make: How The Maker Movement is Changing Our Schools, Our Jobs, And Our Minds. North Atlantic Books. Pg 3

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Chris Anderson. 2012. Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. Random House Business Books. Pg. 13

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Gui Cavalcanti. 2013. Is it a Hackerspace, Makerspace, TechShop, or FabLab? Retrieved February 2018 from https://makezine.com/2013/05/22/the-differencebetween-hackerspaces-makerspaces-techshopsand-fablabs/

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Leah Buechley. 2014. Thinking About Making. Eyeo Festival Keynote. Retrieved February 2018 from https://vimeo.com/110616469

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Daniela K. Rosner, Morgan Ames and Sarah E. Fox. 2016. What Happened to Craft:? Surfacing Alternate Histories of Digital Fabrication and Community in the Maker Movement Retrieved February 2018 from https://hci.sbg.ac.at/wpcontent/uploads/2015/11/What_happened_to_Craf t.pdf

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Digital Library

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Dale Dougherty. 2013. The Maker Mindset: Design, Make, Play. Routledge.

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Cited By

Hirsch MBenabdallah GJacobs JPeek N(2023)Nothing Like Compilation: How Professional Digital Fabrication Workflows Go Beyond Extruding, Milling, and MachinesACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/360932831:1(1-45)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3609328
Rahman MBest M(2023)Why are Some Makerspaces not so Male-DominatedHuman-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-35572-1_23(341-354)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35572-1_23
Hedditch SVyas D(2022)Design Justice in PracticeProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35675547:GROUP(1-39)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3567554
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

We Are Not All Makers: The Paradox of Plurality In The Maker Movement
1. Human-centered computing

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

DIS '18 Companion: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems

May 2018

436 pages

ISBN:9781450356312

DOI:10.1145/3197391

General Chairs:
Ilpo Koskinen
University of Twente
,
Youn-kyung Lim
KAIST
,
Program Chairs:
Teresa Cerratto-Pargman
Stockholm University
,
Kenny Chow
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
,
William Odom
Simon Fraser University

Copyright © 2018 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 30 May 2018

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Science Foundation Ireland

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DIS '18

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SIGCHI

DIS '18: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2018

June 9 - 13, 2018

Hong Kong, China

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DIS '18 Companion Paper Acceptance Rate 107 of 487 submissions, 22%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,158 of 4,684 submissions, 25%

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Cited By

Hirsch MBenabdallah GJacobs JPeek N(2023)Nothing Like Compilation: How Professional Digital Fabrication Workflows Go Beyond Extruding, Milling, and MachinesACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/360932831:1(1-45)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3609328
Rahman MBest M(2023)Why are Some Makerspaces not so Male-DominatedHuman-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-35572-1_23(341-354)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35572-1_23
Hedditch SVyas D(2022)Design Justice in PracticeProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35675547:GROUP(1-39)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3567554
Lakshmi UArriaga R(2022)Warm Solutions: Centering Nurse Contributions in Medical MakingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35557716:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555771
Campreguer França NSmit DWuschitz SFuchsberger V(2021)The Women* Who Made It: Experiences from Being a Woman* at a Maker FestivalSustainability10.3390/su1316936113:16(9361)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169361
Hedditch SVyas D(2021)A Gendered Perspective on Making from an Autoethnography in MakerspacesProceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3461778.3462015(1887-1901)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3461778.3462015
Hofmann MLakshmi UMack KHudson SArriaga RMankoff JKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)The Right to Help and the Right Help: Fostering and Regulating Collective Action in a Medical Making Reaction to COVID-19Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445707(1-13)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445707

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