Reliving the Past & Making a Harmonious Society Today

Abstract

This paper tells a story of DIY (do it yourself) making that does not neatly fit more familiar narratives of making: as individual empowerment, as a democratizing force, and as technoscientific innovation. Drawing on ethnographic research with a collective of elderly electronic hackers in China, we provide insights into the socio-technical and politico-economic processes of hacking and making. This paper examines how the activity of making functioned for elderly DIY enthusiasts as way of remaking and reliving the past and as a means for expressing class belonging and citizenship. We show that making and hacking is not practiced in a void independent of social, political or economic forces. Rather, making unfolds in relation to, and is contingent on, societal norms and specific techno-cultural histories. As much as hacking empowers certain people, it excludes others and functions as a site for the exercise of power and social distinction making.

Making at the Margins

“…Rogers et al's [34] work explored the use of MaKey-MaKey kits among older adults and found that participants exhibited creativity and coordination while working together and felt a sense of achievement. Similarly, Sun et al's [40] work on Chinese older adults highlighted that making occurs in historical and political contexts, enabling older adults to exercise their social status, trust and collective identity.…”

“…It has been argued that many makerspaces bring a strong 'techno-solutionist' focus [9] and often serve more affluent and technology proficient demography. However, the HCI literature in the recent years has seen a growing number of studies that explore diverse and more inclusive forms of making, which involve women makers [12], members from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds [44], older adults [40] and stay at home fathers [3]. For low SES demography in particular, the socio-technical nature of makerspaces has the potential to support peerlearning, cooperation of activities and community rules and expectations in addition to gaining job ready skills [44].…”

“…First, we provide an empirical account of the sociotechnical practices that go in supporting making in a resource-constrained, low SES community, which extends the existing HCI and CSCW literature (e.g. [3,13,30,34,40,44,46]) by adding a narrative from a maker culture that has been rarely studied. Second, we demonstrate that making can be viewed as an ongoing process that builds resilience within individual makers and the communities they work and live in.…”

Advances in DIY Health and Wellbeing

“…Furthermore, the development of useful tutorials for open-source technologies has been shown to be difficult in the HCI domain, even with technically inclined participants shown to struggle with replicating designs [12]. It has been argued that hacking is not practiced in a vacuum independent of political, social, or economic forces [9] and there are other barriers for people that can make them feel excluded from the maker culture, for instance, feeling intimidated about getting involved in 'hacking' [10].…”

HCI and Environmental Public Policy

“…In particular, studies about repair practices and cultures (e.g. [30,46,50]), as well as many of the studies about obsolescence [45], might offer policymakers with new insights about the social practices that affect the implementation of their unsuccessful WEEE policies, systems and regulations. Moreover, some policymakers who work in international development and favour the widespread adoption of digital technologies (including those who Vanessa spoke with at GAC) might be unaware of the health and environmental issues associated with poor WEEE management.…”