Doctoral Dissertation Research: Technological Citizenship through Hackerspaces

The New School, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

New School University doctoral student, Jason Euren, with the supervision of Dr. Miriam Ticktin, will undertake social science research on new intersections of citizenship and technology. The focus of his research will be "hackerspaces," which are community-operated, physical facilities, where people meet, share resources, and pursue technical projects. These facilities provide such resources as advanced laboratory equipment, engineering machinery, and computers. Through hackerspace participation, ordinary citizens are given access to complex, technical systems they would not otherwise have, often for the purpose of addressing issues of public concern (such as monitoring environmental hazards after a natural disaster). Euren seeks to understand the nature, practice, and effect of this growing phenomenon. He will test the hypothesis that it constitutes a new kind of citizenship, which he terms technological citizenship. The researcher will carry out nine months of ethnographic field research in three hackerspaces, all located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through participant observation, interviews, and media analysis, he will collect data on the technologies, users, technological activities, and political engagement. The research is important because hackerspaces are a growing phenomenon throughout the world. They suggest a new civic appropriation of technological devices and processes as political strategies, a new kind of citizenship that appears to be crossing national boundaries. Thus findings from this research will contribute to theorizing the changing relationships between citizenship and technology in both national and global contexts. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.