Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how human and non-human actors form perceptions of a modern subject and human society in manual practices, drawing on the examples of urban gardening projects and sewing cafés.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines how human and nonhuman actants 'collaborate' in forming perceptions of a modern subject and sociality through manual practices. In ethnographic fieldwork, two examples of 'doing it yourself' (DIY), i.e. manual practices, are examined: The cultivation of crops in an urban gardening project and the crafting of clothing and the like while drinking coffee and eating cake in a so called sewing café.

First results of the field studies indicate that makers - as Tim Ingold puts it - 'join forces' with materials to shape sociality. In the examples of DIY presented in this paper, it seems that these manual practices help to form what appears to be an almost ethical concept of being an 'authentic' and 'creative' modern subject. 'Authentic' in this context means aspiring after the ideal of a genuine, autonomous self developing ideas, concepts and needs on its own terms, unaffected by external influences. Andreas Reckwitz works out the emergence of a 'postmodern creative subject'. He even notes a social creative imperative in contemporary western societies that apparently no one can evade without being labelled as a less 'valuable' person. Here, 'creative' is understood as the longing for something new, not necessarily new in idea, or design, but in terms of affective stimuli. In regard to the fieldwork results and the addressed reflections, it can be asked what perceptions, visions, ideals, or utopias of human society become apparent in current pervasive DIY approaches.