Letizia Chiappini

A decade ago many gushed at the possibilities of 3D printers and other DIY tech. Today makers are increasingly shaking off their initial blind enthusiasm to numerically control everything, rediscovering an interest in sociocultural histories and futures and waking up to the environmental and economic implications of digital machines that transform materials. An accumulation of critique has collectively registered that no tool, service, or software is good, bad, or neutral—or even free for that matter. We’ve arrived at a crossroads, where a reflective pause coincides with new critical initiatives emerging across disciplines. What was making? What is making? What could making become? And what about unmaking? The Critical Makers Reader features an array of practitioners and scholars who address these questions. Together, they tackle issues of technological making and its intersections with (un)learning, art and design, institutionalization, social critique, community organizing, collaboration, activism, urban regeneration, social inequality, and the environmental crisis.

This paper seeks to analyse how the defence and expansion of housing rights can be mobilised to become a main topic for contention. For doing that, the article analyses how social mobilisation around housing has widely expanded in Spain since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008, mainly canalised by the Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), which have achieved high relevance in mobilising people and influencing the political agenda. Consequently, the organisation has gathered lots of attention from many scholars who have intensively researched how PAH has developed the resistance to housing commodification. Recognising the value of these works, I consider nevertheless that they overestimate the levels of antagonism of PAH, mainly because they are based on fieldwork conducted in important chapters of the organisation which are in the vanguard of the movement. As relevant as these works are to unfold the dynamics in these nodes, the strong decentralisation recommends to question the generalisation of that vision to the whole organisation, something that has been confirmed by my own fieldwork in a small node of the organisation (Stop Desahucios Coruña). This makes necessary to revise the homogeneous visions of the dynamics within the organisation and to rethink how, if the different nodes show so diverse perceptions, the organisation still manages to be so strong and relevant. The article argues that it is necessary to look at spatio-temporal circumstances, which pose constraints and opportunities for activism. To understand how the organisation responds to the spatio-temporal variable, it is important to look at the different articulations of discourse, identity and repertoire of collective action, which form assemblages in the terms defined by Deleuze and Guattari which can even seem to contradict each other. Thus, these different assemblages are a consequence of the ephemeral and contingent relations between these three aspects, confronting the uniformed visions of PAH’s mobilisation. Therefore, while in some cases this assemblage produces a more antagonist result (that can be the case of the oldest PAHs), in other cases the antagonism can be less relevant or even absent, like it happens in the case of Stop Desahucios Coruña. Furthermore, there exists also temporal differences which influence the assemblages even within a node, being fundamental the changes in time of the roles played by activists and affected people. The analysis concludes that the success of the organisation is sustained in an extreme flexibility and openness to adapt to the different assemblages produced by the spatio-temporal contexts, whereas the refusal to rescale the mobilisation further than the local scale avoids exposing possible contradictions of such a flexible framing. Finally, I consider this experience important to show not only the potential of housing issues to articulate social mobilisation, but also to present innovative strategies for other movements contesting neoliberal housing commodification

The article interrogates the concept of the urban in relation to digital platforms designed for citizen-based initiatives and local projects. We must broaden our scope as urban scholars to include this vast undergrowth of ‘other’ platforms and study how they intersect with the social and material fabric of cities. Drawing from media and internet studies, urban sociology, and digital geography, I introduce the novel concept of ‘urban digital platform’ (UDP). I do so theoretically by using a digital geography body of work and the level of abstractness proposed by Bratton (2016), in ‘the stack,’ which are entry points to define any kind of digital platform. While global and for-profit digital platforms exploit density, size, and diversity, extracting resources into a data-driven form of governance and computational production of space. UDPs benefit from the urban as a front to (re)organise citizen-based, mutual-aid initiatives, and solidarity actions. The core of the UDP concept lies i...

La Sharing Economy (da ora in poi SE) non è un fenomeno completamente nuovo, ma ciò che nel nostro contemporaneo ne potenzia gli effetti è l’infrastruttura digitale sulla quale è radicata. Il passaggio da un’economia manufacturing-based a una services-driven dove la produzione, manipolazione e condivisione delle informazioni rappresenta il meccanismo generativo del valore, ha abilitato un nuovo tipo di paradigma produttivo e di consumo:

In order to draw conclusions emerging from the book as a whole, this chapter draws on findings from each of the preceding chapters to conduct a synthesising discussion. Organised around the same themes that comprise each part of the book, this discussion proceeds loosely according to the principles of relational comparison. It demonstrates the intricate ways in which thinking, governing, and performing the urban differently are mutually entwined in the differential production of urban space. It also shows how the different theoretical perspectives employed in the book can be made to complement each other in constructive ways that further better understandings of the ways in which alternative urban futures can be enabled.

In October 2016 a broad range of representatives and stakeholders convened in Quito for the United Nations’ Habitat III conference to create and adopt a New Urban Agenda, signalling their collective commitment to the initiation of no less than an urban paradigm shift. Full of sweeping declarations, the New Urban Agenda promises people-centred efforts that empower ‘all individuals and communities while enabling their full and meaningful participation’ while also ‘promoting equally the shared opportunities and benefits that urbanization can offer and that enable all inhabitants, whether living in formal or informal settlements, to lead decent, dignified and rewarding lives and to achieve their full human potential’ (United Nations, 2017: 7). Crucially, the declaration also acknowledges that current urban development trajectories do not generally point in this direction, hence the perceived need for a paradigm shift.

Although they proceed from a shared point of departure, the preceding eleven chapters are pregnant with perspectives and insights that go well beyond the loose conceptual framing provided in Chapter 1. The task that remains is to harness the multiplicity of voices thus engendered by staging an international dialogue on the production of alternative urban spaces. More than a summary of chapter findings, this results in a complex mapping of similarities, resonances, differences, tensions, and disagreements. In staging the dialogue we have not confined ourselves to juxtaposing the chapters but also relate their findings to existing literatures, revisiting in particular the debates included in Chapter 1. The dialogue has two main aims: first, it can be read as a contribution to urban studies in which we try to sketch the scholarly orientations necessary for this cross-disciplinary field to retain and reinvigorate its political and practical relevance; and second, it can be read as a res...

A decade ago many gushed at the possibilities of 3D printers and other DIY tech. Today makers are increasingly shaking off their initial blind enthusiasm to numerically control everything, rediscovering an interest in sociocultural histories and futures and waking up to the environmental and economic implications of digital machines that transform materials. An accumulation of critique has collectively registered that no tool, service, or software is good, bad, or neutral—or even free for that matter. We’ve arrived at a crossroads, where a reflective pause coincides with new critical initiatives emerging across disciplines. What was making? What is making? What could making become? And what about unmaking? The Critical Makers Reader features an array of practitioners and scholars who address these questions. Together, they tackle issues of technological making and its intersections with (un)learning, art and design, institutionalization, social critique, community organizing, collab...

This chapter introduces the key themes of the book with a point of departure in the discussion of the rationale for seeking to enable alternative urban futures. A brief diagnosis of the current urban condition is conducted, resulting in a range of challenge/possibility pairs that set the tone for the kinds of urban issues dealt with in the book. The chapter also includes a discussion on the new urban agenda recently introduced by the United Nations. Finally, it sets conceptual markers for the following chapters by exploring key concepts such as ‘enabling’, ‘the urban’, and ‘alternatives’. Introductions to the three parts of the book as well as brief summaries of the chapters are also provided.

Spaces organised around the practice of “making” are becoming an increasingly frequent sighting in cities around the world, in particular in Europe and North America. These “makerspaces” tend to provide access to a variety of equipment, including 3D printers, laser cutters, computer numerical control (CNC) machines, soldering irons, and even sewing machines, to feed the recent wave of do-it-yourself (DIY) culture. In the emerging literature, however, these spaces are portrayed as much more than merely a new locus for craftwork and urban social encounters. They have become the focal point for a growing discourse that claims urban economies of the future will be radically different from those of today and yesterday. In this discourse, the spaces are acclaimed as the driver of a fundamentally alternative mode of production, with its own distinctive spaces of work, and the potential to reinvent the industrial economy, the city, and urban governance structures.

Airbnb has recently become a growing topic of both concern and interest for urban researchers, policymakers, and activists. Previous research has emphasized Airbnb’s economic impact and its role as a driver of residential gentrification, but Airbnb also fosters place entrepreneurs, geared to extract value from a global symbolic economy by marketing the urban frontier to a transnational middle class. This emphasizes the cultural impact of Airbnb on cities, and its power of symbolizing and communicating who belongs in specific places, responding to questions of class, gender, and ethnicity—and thereby potentially driving cultural displacement. Coming from this perspective, this paper uses computational critical discourse analysis to study how white and black hosts market black-majority neighborhoods in New York City on Airbnb, and how guests describe their consumption experience. The analysis shows how white entrepreneurs attempt to attract guests through a form of colonial discourse:...

The article interrogates the concept of the urban in relation to digital platforms designed for citizen-based initiatives and local projects. We must broaden our scope as urban scholars to include this vast undergrowth of 'other' platforms and study how they intersect with the social and material fabric of cities. Drawing from media and internet studies, urban sociology , and digital geography, I introduce the novel concept of 'urban digital platform' (UDP). I do so theoretically by using a digital geography body of work and the level of abstractness proposed by Bratton (2016), in 'the stack,' which are entry points to define any kind of digital platform. While global and for-profit digital platforms exploit density, size, and diversity, extracting resources into a data-driven form of governance and computational production of space. UDPs benefit from the urban as a front to (re)organise citizen-based, mutual-aid initiatives, and solidarity actions. The core of the UDP concept lies in the ambiguity of the role of the urban government, media literacy, and techno-biases as basic requirements for citizens to access the platform, its services, and goods. Those claims are supported by instances and empirical findings of two analysed platforms in Milan and Amsterdam.

Dopo alcuni decenni di egemonia neoliberale, la crisi economico-finanziaria globale e le conseguenti tensioni sociali, hanno contributo a ridisegnare alcuni assetti del capitalismo contemporaneo. Da questa spaccatura emergono nuovi " seducenti " discorsi e pratiche che all'apparenza promuovono forme di " comunitarismo " , azione collettiva, solidarietà e collaborazione tra individui, e la condivisione di spazi, risorse, conoscenze, le quali necessitano di differenti modelli economici, organizzativi e culturali. In diversa misura tali discorsi e pratiche tentano di superare le pure logiche di mercato, e i modelli tradizionali di produzione e di distribuzione del valore, ancorandosi ai discorsi pubblici e alla forza trasformativa dei media digitali. La cosiddetta sharing economy (o economia collaborativa) può produrre crescita e opportunità distribuite. All'interno del vasto panorama della sharing economy, questo saggio prende in esame il making, ovvero la nuova fabbricazione digitale come strumento di sviluppo economico e di coesione sociale nella città contemporanea. La fabbricazione digitalecombina l'impiego di tecniche tradizionali e artigiane con l'uso avanzato della tecnologia, ed è un fenomeno in crescita osservabile principalmente nelle aree urbane, dove sorgono con un ritmo incessante spazi condivisi per la fabbricazione digitale. Chiameremo maker-space, o luoghi/spazi di making questi luoghi, e utilizzeremo il termine makers per indicare coloro che li frequentano e ne utilizzano i macchinari. Se da un lato è ampiamente riconosciutala portata innovativa di queste pratiche, dall'altro rimangono aperte questioni relative alla manifattura digitale come strumento di coesione sociale e al suo reale impatto economico nella città contemporanea. L'obiettivo di questo articolo è tentare di affrontare queste questioni, offrendo un'analisi in cui si esplora il grado di radicamento dei luoghi della fabbricazione digitale. Lo studioso americano Michael Storper [2013] propone un'analisi delle attività economiche nella società,che ci permette di osservare il loro radicamentoattraverso la formazione di: a) reti di relazione sociali in grado di produrre e far circolare un sapere condiviso tra i produttori; b) istituzioni capaci di creare regole condivise di convivenza e codici di comportamento comune per il mutuo riconoscimento, e in grado di rappresentare gli interessi della collettività dei produttori nella sfera politica; c) rapporti di collaborazione e sostegno con l'amministrazione pubblica locale e nazionale. In genere, gli spazi di making appaiono come luoghi radicati e integrati nel tessuto locale, del quale utilizzano principalmente risorse e know-how. Il tratto innovativo dei maker-space risiede nell'organizzazione delle loro attività basate su processi orizzontali di natura collaborativa; questi laboratori urbani non sono solamente spazi in cui sperimentare nuove tecnologie e processi produttivi, ma anche luoghi di condivisione del sapere e di innovazione collettiva. L'aspetto dell'auto-organizzazione, la creazione di (nuovi) legami sociali che favoriscono la coesione sociale, la diffusione di un'etica 'alternativa' al consumo massivo, sono tutti tasselli di un più ampio processo di innovazione che investe le nostre città.Nel panorama milanese vi è stata una moltiplicazione di spazi di making che ha portato Milano a essere la città italiana con il più alto numero di maker-space presenti sul territorio. Diventa quindi necessario, oggi più che mai, osservare attentamente e criticamente queste pratiche per comprenderne il contributo nell'economia e nelle società urbane contemporanee. La proliferazione di spazi di making nell'area milanese non è un dato rimasto inosservato, il filone di ricerche esplorative sul fenomeno si è così irrobustito. Riportiamo in questa sede due importanti contributi recenti.

THE CRITICAL MAKERS READER Makerspaces and fablabs are popping up in community centers, schools, universities and libraries, offering access to industry-standard production methods. In parallel to this interest in digital fabrication and maker culture, there seems to be a growing appreciation of critically engaged reflexive making processes. Such critical engagements with technology are being propagated across the fields of design, art, humanities and engineering as being imperative for coming to terms with the pressing complex ecological, political, cultural, economic and social issues of our times. Substantial theories of collaborative critical making as emancipatory practice ​ across​ disciplines are needed to further address the educational challenges at play in learning how to become socially engaged creative professionals and citizens of the postdigital age. The challenges we face for education in this increasingly networked era are shared across disciplines, calling for sharing knowledge of how to critically engage with contemporary issues. For this publication, we call for contributors who wish to explore questions raised at the intersections of maker culture, critical applied research methodologies, interdisciplinary collaborative practice, (higher and informal) education, emancipatory pedagogy and the commons. The reader will be a volume of critical contributions and discussions by theorists, creative practitioners, programmers, designers, artists, activists, engineers and educators to address the transformative potential of such practices and spaces.