Promises, Promises: Exploring Hegemonic Maker Culture Discourses Through a Canadian Feminist Lens

• In Event: Alternative Pedagogies at the Crux of Interdisciplinarity: Promises and Pitfalls of “Innovating” Education - II

Abstract

We are all Makers! Or so claims Maker Culture: a global phenomenon that encourages the blending of traditional DIY handiwork with computer technology. Fueling Maker Culture are various "Do-It-Together" communities of practice, commonly called ‘makerspaces’. These makerspaces often tout ideologies of openness, sharing, collaboration, and ‘hands on’ pedagogy. The primary intention of Maker Culture is to create more welcoming STEM environments, especially for children and marginal identities. Since 2011, thousands of makerspaces have opened worldwide.

Yet, in reality, makerspaces tend to be dominated by STEM-educated White cis-men. Since the 1980s, it has been well established that the realms of science and technology have a ‘diversity problem’ (Harding, 1991; Turkle, 1995; Faulkner, 2001; Adam, 2005; Wajcman, 2013). Aside from discouraging women and girls from participating in technospaces and technoculture, this ‘diversity problem’ also raises key questions about who can produce ‘legitimate’ STEM knowledge. Therefore, makerspaces tend to reinforce many of the same problematic STEM stereotypes that feminist science and technology studies scholars have been critiquing since the 1980s.

In my talk, I will use recently collected interview data to explore how Canadian feminists have encountered various gatekeeping practices within Maker Culture. Key points of consideration will include Maker Culture’s selective history and understanding of ‘critical making’, and how this fosters ‘dudecore’ makerspace environments. By focusing on the recent work of some Canadian feminist makers, I will also consider how ‘marginal makers’ disrupt this dominant brand of Maker Culture, while also adopting some of the activist ideals that led to its creation.

Author

• Jessi Ring, Carleton University