[ecrea] CfP: Shared Machine Shops Beyond Local Prototyping and Manufacturing [Journal of Peer Production)

Call for Papers - Special issue of the Journal of Peer Production
Shared Machine Shops: Beyond Local Prototyping and Manufacturing
Editors: Maxigas (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), Peter Troxler 
(International Fab Lab Association, Rotterdam University of Applied 
Sciences)
http://peerproduction.net/

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 September 30th, 2013, and 
should be sent to (fablabissue /at/ peerproduction.net).

Submissions will be notified by October 15th, 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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