Maker Communities: A Landscape of Spaces and Practices

# Maker Communities
## A Landscape of Spaces and Practices

Clément Renaud

May 13th, 2020  
SUSTech, Shenzhen

---
# About me: Clément Renaud

### Academic Activities

- Postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Area and Global Studies at Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL)
- Associate Researcher at the Institute for Complex Systems (IXXI) at ENS de Lyon
- Qualified assistant professor in CNRS section 39 (Geography)

### Art, Design and Consulting

- Art Collective Member at Disnovation.org
- Creative Developer at Fabricatorz Foundation.
- Owner at Clément Renaud
]

---

## Makerspaces in China (2016-2019)
Institute for Area and Global Studies (IAGS) at EPFL, Swiss Institute of Technology. SNFS Funding

## Open Innovation Models in Urban China (2014-2016)
Interdisciplinary Institute for Innovation (i3), Institut Mines Telecom, Paris. ANR Funding
]

.col-one-half.center[
![](/books/realtime/img/REALTIME_cover.jpeg)

## realtimechina.net
]

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class: center

# Outline

## 0. Some Context
## 1. Definitions
## 2. Maker Cultures
## 3. Spatial Forms
## 4. 创客 (chuangke)
## 5. Discussions

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class: middle, center

# 1. Some Definitions
## Technics, Technology, Innovation

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## How is technology made?

![](./img/paleolithic.jpg)

## What does it makes to us?

---
name:cuneiform
class:inverse, center
background-image: url(../MemeWriting/img/cuneiform.jpg)

.small.footnote[
Vente Maison Et Esclave Mâle, Collection Mésopotamie Iran.
 Musée du Louvre - photo: [(c) Claude Valette](https://www.flickr.com/photos/cvalette/9632530128) ]
---

name:library
class:inverse, center
background-image: url(../MemeWriting/img/bibli.jpg)

.small.footnote[Library in Trinity College, Dublin. Ireland - source:[(c) Ahmet Ertug](http://www.phillips.com/detail/AHMET-ERTUG/NY040114/225)]
---
name:data
class: inverse, center
background-image: url(../MemeWriting/img/google-datacenter.jpg)

.small.footnote[Data Center in Douglas County, Georgia. USA - source: [Google](http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/)]
---
class: inverse
background-image: url(./img/canuts_croix_rousse.jpg)

# The production of (urban) space

---
class: center
background-image: url(../EPFL-GoingEast/img/Electronics_factory_in_Shenzhen-min.jpg)

.inverse.footnote[a micro-soldering chain in Guangdong   
.small[photo: Wikipedia]
]

---
background-image: url(../atlas-of-data/img/earth-temperature.png)

.inverse.footnote[
Berkeley Earth Center
]

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background-image: url(../atlas-of-data/img/UABB_CARTOGRAPHIES-OF-PLANETARY-URBANISATION_Topalovic.jpg)
.inverse[
# From "cities" to "planetory urbanisation"
]

.footnote.inverse[
Schmid, Brenner & Topalovic, 2018]
]

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class: middle, center, inverse

# Where/how should technology be made?
## My research question!

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# 2. Maker "cultures"
## Technology as a political program?

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# The "maker movement"

![](./img/image6.png)
![](./img/image7.png)
![](./img/image9.png)

from California, USA.

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background-image: url(img/maker-movement-flowchart.jpg)

# Social, Knowledge, Technology

.footnote[ [Browder et al. 2019](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883902617308273) ]

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background-image: url(img/fablab.png)

# New means of fabrication

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background-image: url(img/face-shield.jpg)

# Facilitate the circulation of knowledge

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background-image: url(img/robotic-arm.png)

# Learning by doing

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background-image: url(img/maker.jpg)

# Learning as a group

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class: inverse
background-image: url(img/diy.png)

# Heritage of the DIY Culture

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class: inverse
background-image: url(img/1970s_fanzines.jpg)

# Self-reliance and autonomy
## The heritage of counter-culture

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class: inverse
background-image: url(img/hack-squat.png)

# Hacking as a counter-culture
## Appropriate, repurpose, own
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background-image: url(img/quadrature.png)

# Radical Techno-Politics
## Question how technology is produced

.footnote[ source: Quadrature du Net ]
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background-image: url(img/critical-engineering.png)
# Making as a Critical Practice
## Wifi-Sniffing Grenade by Critical Engineering

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class: inverse
background-image: url(img/maker-faire-white-house.jpg)
#... but at the same time

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background-image: url(img/casemate-burnt.png)
# Political turmoils and contradictions

La Casemate in Grenoble was set on fire following political revendications (2018).

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class: inverse
background-image: url(img/coffee-robots.jpg)
# Is "making" always really that useful?

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class: inverse
background-image: url(img/drone.jpg)
# Or just a leisure for highly-paid engineers?

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background-image: url(../EPFL-GoingEast/img/fabcity.jpg)
# Are makers the new technocrats?

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background-image: url(img/middleground-cohendet.jpeg)
# The makers are acting as "Middleground"

# Not one, but many maker (political) cultures
## A diverse set of ideas and practices
## No unified stance on technology

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# 2. The makers and their spaces
## Spatial forms of making

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class: inverse
background-image: url(../EPFL-GoingEast/img/betahaus-Barcelona.jpg)

# Coworking space
Beta Haus, Barcelona

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class: inverse
background-image: url(../EPFL-GoingEast/img/noisebridge-workshop.jpg)

# Hackerspace

Noisebridge, San Francisco

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class: inverse
background-image: url(../EPFL-GoingEast/img/articlect-toulouse.jpg)

# Fablabs

Artilect, Toulouse

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class: inverse
background-image: url(./img/hackuarium.png)

# BioHack Lab

Lausanne, Switzerland

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class: center
# Blurry definitions
### ...that failed to acknowledge the diversity of initiatives

---
class: inverse
background-image: url(./img/repair-cafe.png)

# Repair Cafes
## Fix and learn to fix your machines
Many Cities over Europe and US

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background-image: url(./img/atelier-paysan.png)

# L’Atelier Paysan
## "Technological sovereignty" for agricultors
Rhone-Alpes/Bretagne, France

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class: inverse
background-image: url(./img/fabrique-gonesse.png)

# La Fabrique de Gonnesse
## Maker Education for Kids and Teenagers
Gonesse, France

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class: inverse
background-image: url(./img/erasme.jpg)

# Erasme
## Living Lab from Local Government
Lyon, France

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class: inverse, center, middle

# Local, territorialized forms
### Deeply tied to the local context and agenda
### Parts of global networks and narratives

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class: middle, center

# 4. 创客 (chuangke)
## A case study from China

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class: inverse
background-image: url(../pspe/img/creativeparks.jpg)

# Planners and the "Creative City"
## 12th Shanghai Urban Plan 2006-2015
### Creative Industriel Clusters (CICs)

- CICs in Shanghai have largely fail to deliver
services to SMEs
- Large companies have emerged (mostly state-owned)
(Zhen &Chan, 2014)  
- No "creative class" has emerged (O' Connor & Gu,
2012)
- Not supporting SMEs (Rossiter, 2010)
]

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background-image: url(../EPFL-GoingEast/img/xindanwei.jpg)
class:

# Meanwhile...
### Xindanwei (新单位)
### 2010-2013 (RIP)

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background-image: url(../pspe/img/xcj.JPG)
class: inverse

## Xinchejian (新车间)
## 2011-now

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background-image: url(../pspe/img/peopleSquared.jpg)
class: inverse
## People Squared (联合创业办公社)
## 2011

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background-image: url(../pspe/img/innovationHouses.JPG)
class: inverse
## Innovation Houses (创新屋)
## 2014

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## Launch of the "Mass Makerspaces" program (2015)
## Part of "Made in China 2025"

![](../EPFL-GoingEast/img/LiKeqiang-Seed.png)

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## Timeline of events in Shanghai

![](../EPFL-GoingEast/img/shanghai-figure.png)

source: Renaud et al, 2016
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class: inverse
background-image: url(../EPFL-GoingEast/img/chuangke.jpg)

## The "chuangke" (makers) are everywhere

---
class: inverse
background-image: url(./img/hqb-chuangke.jpg)

## Huaqiangbei, the new "paradise for makers"

---
class: inverse
background-image: url(../EPFL-GoingEast/img/empty.jpg)

## Thousands of spaces open/close across China

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class: inverse
background-image: url(./img/tencent-makerspaces.png)

## 创客空间: no machines, more similar to an incubator
### The "chuangke" drift away from the "maker"

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# The quest for 'chuangke' leadership

## 黑客 (heike)

## 创客 (chuangke)

## 双创 (shuangchuang)

The "changemakers" (Jing, 2017)

A new figure of the Chinese entrepreneur: young, global, digital.
]

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# What can we learn from the 创客 case?
### The word "maker" has been redefined by industrial policies
### The makers are given a central role in the renewal of national industry
### Places can be ephemeral and acts as temporary space for encounters

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class: center, middle

# Discussions
## Reflections and questions

---

# There is no single "maker movement"

## The "makers" exist as groups involved in different initiatives, from national policies to street level

## A common trait is the tinkering with technology, but the goals and aims may differ radically, even be absolute opposites.

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# A continuation of (spatial) history

## Local industrial and societal whereabouts define maker communities locally.

## Spatial forms and organisations are local, despite similar appearance or naming.

## Still, makers insert into larger global narratives around "innovation", not always with great benefits.

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# "Middleground" as a primary function

- Despite their differences, the multiple networks of the makers are intertwined and contribute to form a "middleground", where small (underground) initiatives can interact with larger (overground) institutional dynamics.

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class: middle, center

# Now time for questions?

## Thank you!

### Clément Renaud

### wechat: clementrenaud
### twitter: @clemsos