Paper long abstract:

FabLabs, Hackerspaces and Makerspaces are community-based workshops that enable people to access versatile digital design and fabrication technologies; and join together in collaborative projects where they can make practically anything they wish. These physical spaces are networked through social media to other workshops and to on-line resources, such as open designs, code, training, and discussion forums. Workshop members meet up at regional and international events. Many cities around the world have or are opening community-based workshops. Some are self-organised, grassroots initiatives; others are linked to universities and other institutions. Many view themselves as part of different maker, hacker and autonomist movements.

Drawing on an in-depth literature review on grassroots digital fabrication and a conference workshop (including academics and practitioners), this paper examines three critical issues associated with developments in grassroots digital fabrication: sustainability, inclusivity, and creativity. Some advocates have argued that community-based digital fabrication workshops address issues of environmental sustainability and social justice, including issues of democracy and inclusivity, topics of sustainable production and consumption, and debates of more creative, skilling technologies. In the light of little current social science literature on the topic, such claims are still highly speculative. Research activity must be attentive to these critical issues confronting grassroots digital fabrication. After all, innovation as an activity involves risks and uncertainty, is destructive as well as creative, and whose appropriation of benefits can exclude certain social interests.