Hacking as Craft(y): An Ethnographic Exploration of High-Tech Transgression

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Abstract

This analysis uses ethnographic field research and content analysis data to arrive at a subculturally-grounded understanding of hacking. Such an endeavor draws from the processes of cultural criminological sense making in addition to phenomenological eidetic reduction to strike at the essence of hacking. In addition to consisting of a particular mentality, hacking is argued here to have many dimensions which qualify it as a craft based on Sennett’s (2008) sociological exploration of craftsmanship. These include: (1) an emphasis on skill, (2) a sense of ownership over one’s tools and the end product, (3) the hacking community’s parallels to guilds, (4) a deep sense of passion towards the activity, (5) an emphasis on the process over the end result, and (6) a phenomenological experience which is similar to one experienced in craftwork. Beyond craftwork, hacking almost always possesses a transgressive edge, regardless of the kind of hacking engaged in. In this sense, hacking is perhaps best understood as a transgressive craft. As such, this analysis injects new cultural criminological life into an old idea, that criminal/deviant activity can be thought of as occupational/work/labor.

Author

• Kevin F. Steinmetz, Kansas State University