Author(s):
- Hepp, Andreas
Abstract:
The aim of this article is to reconstruct the ways in which the organizational elites of the Quantified Self and Maker movements curate their respective pioneer communities. Based on a media ethnography carried out in Germany, the UK, and the USA it is demonstrated that the two movements adopt different curatorial models: curation through the use of an ‘unenforced trademark’ in the case of the Quantified Self movement and curation through ‘franchising’ in the case of the Maker movement. The fragility of both models is not necessarily a disadvantage to either and it has contributed to the rapid global spread of both communities. An analysis of these curatorial practices demonstrates that while these communities like to present themselves as having emerged from local groupings, rising ‘from below’, they are, in fact, figurations whose origin and overall exertion of influence can be traced back to Silicon Valley and the Whole Earth Network.
Documentation:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920922867
References:
| Abend, P, Fuchs, M (eds) (2016) Quantified Selves and Statistical Bodies. Bielefeld: transcript. Google Scholar | |
| Ajana, B (2017) Digital health and the biopolitics of the Quantified Self. Digital Health 3(1): 1–18. Google Scholar | |
| Anderson, C (2012) Makers. New York: Random House. Google Scholar | |
| Baack, S (2015) Datafication and empowerment. Big Data & Society 2(2), doi: 10.1177/2053951715594634. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Bachmann, G, Wittel, A (2006) Medienethnografie. In: Ayaß, R, Bergmann, J (eds) Qualitative Methoden der Medienforschung. Reinbeck: Rowohlt, pp. 183–219. Google Scholar | |
| Barniskis, SC (2013) Makerspaces and teaching artists. Teaching Artist Journal 12(1): 6–14. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Bean, J, Rosner, D (2014) Making. interactions 21(1): 26–27. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Bourdieu, P (2010) Distinction. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Callon, M (1986) Some elements of a sociology of translation. In: Law, J (ed.) Power, Action and Belief. London, Routledge, pp. 196–223. Google Scholar | |
| Corbin, J, Strauss, AC (2008) Basics of Qualitative Research. London: Sage. Google Scholar | |
| Couldry, N, Hepp, A (2017) The Mediated Construction of Reality. Cambridge: Polity Press. Google Scholar | |
| Crawford, K, Lingel, J, Karppi, T (2015) Our metrics, ourselves. European Journal of Cultural Studies 18(4–5): 479–496. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Davies, SR (2017) Hackerspaces. Cambridge: Polity. Google Scholar | |
| Didžiokaitė, G, Saukko, P, Greiffenhagen, C (2018) The mundane experience of everyday calorie trackers. New Media & Society 20(4): 1470–1487. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Dougherty, D, Conrad, A (2016) Free to Make. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. Google Scholar | |
| Esmonde, K (2019) Accommodating and resisting self-surveillance in women’s running and fitness tracking practices. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, doi: 10.1080/2159676X.2019.1617188. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
| Fotopoulou, A (2018) From networked to quantified self. In: Papacharissi, Z (ed.) A Networked Self. London: Routledge, pp. 144–159. Google Scholar | |
| Fredriksson, M, Pallas, J (2017) The localities of mediatization. In Driessens, O , et al. (eds) Dynamics of Mediatization. London: Palgrave, pp. 119–136. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Gauntlett, D (2018) Making Is Connecting. Cambridge: Polity Press. Google Scholar | |
| Giddens, A (1994) Living in a post-traditional society. In: Beck, U, Giddens, A, Lash, S (eds) Reflexive Modernization. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 56–107. Google Scholar | |
| Glaser, BG, Strauss, AL (1999) Discovery of Grounded Theory. New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction. Google Scholar | |
| Greenfield, D (2016) Deep data. Notes on the n of 1. In: Nafus, D (ed.) Quantified. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 123–146. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Hepp, A (2016) Pioneer communities. Media, Culture & Society 38(6): 918–933. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Hepp, A (2018) What Makes a Maker? Nordisk Tidsskrift for Informationsvidenskab Og Kulturformidling 7(2): 3–18. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Hepp, A (2020) Deep Mediatization. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Hepp, A, Alpen, A, Siemon, P (2020) Beyond empowerment, experimentation and reasoning: The public discourse around the Quantified Self movement. Communications. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Hess, DJ (2005) Technology- and product-oriented movements. Science, Technology & Human Values 30(4): 515–535. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Hintz, A, Dencik, L, Wahl-Jorgensen, K (2019) Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society. Cambridge: Polity. Google Scholar | |
| Hitzler, R, Niederbacher, A (2010) Leben in Szenen. Wiesbaden: VS. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Hitzler, R, Honer, A, Pfadenhauer, M (eds) (2008) Posttraditionale Gemeinschaften. Wiesbaden: VS. Google Scholar | |
| Hunsinger, J, Schrock, A (2016) The democratization of hacking and making. New Media & Society 18(4): 535–538. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Irani, L (2015) Hackathons and the making of entrepreneurial citizenship. Science, Technology & Human Values, doi: 10.1177/0162243915578486. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Jasanoff, S, Kim, SH (eds) (2015) Dreamscapes of Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Kelly, K (2016) The Inevitable. New York: Viking. Google Scholar | |
| Kostakis, V, Niaros, V, Giotitsas, C (2015) Production and governance in hackerspaces. International Journal of Cultural Studies 18(5): 555–573. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Lange, B (2015) Fablabs und Hackerspaces. Ökologisches Wirtschaften 30(1): 8–9. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Lomborg, S, Frandsen, K (2015) Self-tracking as communication. Information, Communication & Society 19(7): 1015–1027. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Lundby, K (ed.) (2014) Mediatization of Communication. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Lupton, D (2014) Self-tracking modes. Paper for the ‘Imminent Citizenships: Personhood and Identity Politics in the Informatic Age’ workshop, 27 August 2014, ANU, Canberra. Google Scholar | |
| Lupton, D (2015) Quantified sex. Cult Health Sex 17(4): 440–453. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Marcus, GE (1995) Ethnography in/of the world system. Annual Review of Anthropology 24(4): 95–117. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Marzocchi, G, Morandin, G, Bergami, M (2013) Brand communities. European Journal of Marketing 47(1/2): 93–114. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| McGann, JG, Sabatini, R (2011) Global Think Tanks. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Morse, JM , et al. (eds) (2009) Developing Grounded Theory. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. Google Scholar | |
| Murdock, G (2017) Mediatisation and the transformation of capitalism. Javnost – The Public 24(2): 119–135. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Murphy, PD, Kraidy, MM (eds) (2003) Global Media Studies. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Nafus, D (ed.) (2016) Quantified. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Nascimento, S, Pólvora, A (2016) Maker cultures and the prospects for technological action. Science and Engineering Ethics, Online First 1–20. Google Scholar | |
| Neff, G, Nafus, D (2016) Self-Tracking. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Nguyen, J (2016) Make magazine and the social reproduction of DIY science and technology. Cultural Politics 12(2): 233–252. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Pantzar, M, Ruckenstein, M (2014) The heart of everyday analytics. Consumption Markets & Culture 18(1): 92–109. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Peppler, K, Halverson, E, Kafai, YB (eds) (2016) Makeology. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Pink, S , et al. (2016) Digital Ethnography. London: Sage. Google Scholar | |
| Porta, D, Diani, M (2006) Social Movements. Malden, Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar | |
| Ramsauer, C, Firessnig, M (2016) Einfluss der Maker Movement auf die Forschung und Entwicklung. In: Techno-Ökonomie-Forum (ed.) Industrial Engineering und Management. Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 43–61. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Ratto, M, Boler, M (eds) (2014) DIY Citizenship. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Richterich, A (2017) Hacking events. Convergence, online first, doi: 10.1177/1354856517709405. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Rogers, EM (2003) Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press. Google Scholar | |
| Ruckenstein, M, Pantzar, M (2017) Beyond the Quantified Self. New Media & Society 19(3): 401–418. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Sharon, T (2017) Self-tracking for health and the quantified self. Philosophy & Technology 30: 93–121. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Sharon, T, Zandbergen, D (2016) From data fetishism to quantifying selves New Media & Society 19(11): 1695–1709. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Sivek, SC (2011) Technological utopianism in MAKE Magazine. Journal of Communication Inquiry 35(3): 187–209. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Swan, M (2013) The quantified self. Big Data 1(2): 85–99. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Thorson, K, Wells, C (2016) Curated flows. Communication Theory 26(3): 309–328. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Toombs, A, Bardzell, S, Bardzell, J (2014) Becoming makers. Journal of Peer Production, http://peerproduction.net Google Scholar | |
| Traue, B (2013) Bauformen audiovisueller Selbst-Diskurse. In: Lucht, P, Schmidt, LM, Tuma, R (eds) Visuelles Wissen und Bilder des Sozialen. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 281–301. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Turner, F (2006) From Counterculture to Cyberculture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Turner, F (2018) Millenarian tinkering. Technology and Culture 59(4S): 160–182. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Wenger, E (1999) Communities of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Williamson, B (2015) Algorithmic skin. Sport, Education and Society 20(1): 133–151. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Wolf, G (2009) Know thyself. Wired Magazine 24(7): 365. Google Scholar | |
| Wolf, G (2010) The data-driven life. The New York Times (magazine), 28 April, p. MM38. Google Scholar |