[WFS-India] FWD: CFP: Shared Machine Shops

[A. Mani]

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Call for Papers - Special issue of the Journal of Peer Production
Shared Machine Shops: Beyond Local Prototyping and Manufacturing

Deadline extended by two weeks - 15 October 2013

Editors: Maxigas (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), Peter Troxler
(International Fab Lab Association, Rotterdam University of Applied
Sciences)

In the last years we have witnessed an incredible proliferation of
shared machine shops in a confusing number of genres: hackerspaces,
makerspaces, Fab Labs and their more commercial counterparts such as
TechShops, co-working spaces, accelerators and incubators.

These are currently "fringe phenomena" because they play a minor role
in the production of wealth, knowledge, political consensus and the
social organisation of life. Interestingly, however, they also
experience the same core transformations as contemporary capitalism.
That is, for the individual: the convergence of work, labour and other
aspects of life. On a systemic level: the rapid development of
algorithmically driven technical systems and their intensifying role
in social organisation. Finally, as a corollary: the practical and
legitimation crisis of modern institutions, echoed by renewed attempts
at self-organisation.

Arguably, hackers occupied such an ambiguous position since the
beginning of hackerdom, but shared machine shops represent a new
configuration. They appear as embodied communities organised in
research and production units of physical and logical goods; they even
appear to escape the subcultural ghetto as educational institutions,
museums, and libraries start to integrate them into their ambit. They
are eminent laboratories in both their practices and products: as
experimental forms of social institutions, and as the developers of
technological prototypes projecting new visions of the future.
Industry actors, state authorities and policy makers have recognised
such milieus as prolific grounds for recruitment and new
organisational models, which in itself warrants critical attention.

Inspired by all these developments, we dedicate the next special issue
of the Journal of Peer Production to Fab Labs and similar places.

Some of the questions we are interested in exploring:

* What are the historical conditions and concrete genealogies which
enabled the emergence of shared machine shops? (Can we talk about the
renewed relevance of craftsmanship?)

* Are rapid prototyping practices changing the relationships to
technology, research and development, and innovation? (Are shared
machine shops democratising knowledge and production or rather
building a new maker elite?)

* How do technologies cultivated in shared machine shops such as
personal fabrication intervene in urban and rural geographies? (Is the
time ripe for "global villages" or we have to adapt to "smart
cities"?)

* What new and old anthropologies and ethics are articulated in shared
machine shops? (Who is the “New Man” of Peer Production?)

* Finally, how do shared machine shops interface with the political
economy of contemporary capitalism and the military-industrial
complex? (If the means of production are in the hands of the workers,
is that free labour, a new form of outsourcing, or the germ for a next
revolution?)

Beyond local prototyping and manufacturing capability, what is the
contribution of shared machine shops to critical practices of
technology appropriation, to products, services and consumption
patterns, to urban and rural geographies, and to practical political
economy and ethics?

Contributions are welcome from scholars and practitioners alike.
Collaborative efforts are encouraged. We are mainly expecting academic
papers on the one hand, and commented project documentations or
narrative vignettes on the other hand, but anything that can be
presented on a website could work. However, submitters are advised to
keep in mind that the content should address questions of consequence
to practitioners, based on realities on the ground, while at the same
time they should be reflexive and consider their wider intellectual
context.

Submission proposals of up to 500 words due by October 15, 2013, and
should be sent to fablabissue at peerproduction.net

Submissions will be notified by October 30, 2013, and full papers and
materials (research papers around 8,000 words, testimonies and
documents around 3,000 words) are due by January 31st, 2014, for
review. Final submission deadline is June 1st, 2014. The special issue
is due to appear in early July 2014.

Research papers are peer reviewed according to JoPP review policies.

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Best

A. Mani



A. Mani
CU, ASL, AMS, CLC, CMS
http://www.logicamani.in