Genealogy, Culture and Technomyth: Decolonizing Western Information Technologies, from Open Source to the Maker Movement

Digital Culture & Society 3(1), 25-46, DOI 10.14361/dcs-2017-0103. Forthcoming

17 Pages Posted: 28 Jun 2017

See all articles by Kat Braybrooke

Kat Braybrooke

University of Sussex

Tim Jordan

University of Sussex

Date Written: June 1, 2017

Abstract

Western-derived maker movements and their associated fab labs and hackerspaces are being lauded by some as a global industrial revolution, responsible for groundbreaking digital “entanglements” that transform identities, practices and cultures at an unprecedented rate (Anderson 2014; Hills 2016). Assertions proliferate regarding the societal and entrepreneurial benefits of these “new” innovations, with positive impacts ascribed to everything, from poverty to connectivity. However, contradictory evidence has started to emerge, suggesting that a heterogeneous set of global cultural practices have been homogenized. This chapter employs a materialist genealogical framework to deconstruct three dominant narratives about information technologies, which we call “technomyths” in the tradition of McGregor et al. After outlining the maker movement, its assumptions are examined through three lesser-cited examples: One Laptop per Child in Peru, jugaad in India and shanzhai copyleft in China. We then explore two preceding technomyths: Open Source and Web 2.0. In conclusion, we identify three key aspects as constitutive to all three technomyths: technological determinism of information technologies, neoliberal capitalism and its “ideal future” subjectivities and the absence and/or invisibility of the non-Western.

Keywords: making, hacking, open source, technomyth, shanzai, copyleft, web 2.0, genealogy

Suggested Citation

Braybrooke, Kat and Jordan, Tim, Genealogy, Culture and Technomyth: Decolonizing Western Information Technologies, from Open Source to the Maker Movement (June 1, 2017). Digital Culture & Society 3(1), 25-46, DOI 10.14361/dcs-2017-0103. Forthcoming , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2993226

Kat Braybrooke (Contact Author)

University of Sussex ( email )

Sussex House
Falmer
Brighton, Sussex BNI 9RH
United Kingdom

Tim Jordan

University of Sussex ( email )

Sussex House
Falmer
Brighton, Sussex BNI 9RH
United Kingdom

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
194
Abstract Views
1,167
Rank
320,005
PlumX Metrics