Anticipating digital futures: ruins, entanglements and the possibilities of shared technology making

ABSTRACT

Contrary to the corporate production of digital cities, shared technology making explores ways of innovation that are open to all, informed by diverse knowledges, and led by citizens. However, this exploration faces corporate translation of ethical and societal values for capital accumulation and concerns around the right to participate. Building on Tsing’s concept of ‘ruins’, this paper considers the anticipation of digital futures while the neoliberal ruination of shared technology making is in full swing. The paper examines the entanglements in hackathon rationalities and practices and demonstrates that the possibilities of shared technology making emerge from disrupting technocratic visions and repurposing corporate innovation resources and techniques. Drawing on the analysis, the paper argues that these entanglements are crucial to digital futures. They disclose in concrete ways how neoliberal co-optation can be disturbed and transformed. Equally importantly, they urge continuous explorations to assemble diverse practices and values for building momentum towards sustained processes of shaping desirable futures.

KEYWORDS:

• Hackathon
• civic hacking
• digital urbanism
• smart city
• urban future
• participatory agency

Acknowledgments

The research for this paper was funded by an ERC Advanced Investigator award, ‘The Programmable City’ (ERC-2012-AdG 323636-SOFTCITY). I am grateful for the constructive comments from the anonymous reviewers, the participants of The Right to the Smart City workshop at Maynooth University, Ireland and a Ulysses knowledge exchange workshop at The Center for the Sociology of Innovation, Mines ParisTech, France. I have The Programmable City members and Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute staff to thank for their unfailing support during and beyond the life course of the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Methodological considerations and detailed analysis of hackathon typology are discussed in Perng (forthcoming).

2. For example, Garage48 is partly funded by EU to organise hackathon series for this purpose, see http://garage48.ee/blog/erdf-is-supporting-garage48-hardware-and-arts-in-tartu-for-the-next-three-times. Others take place in Prague (http://hackprague.com/), Africa (http://www.hacks4africa.com/, or other French speaking countries, or Francophonie (http://ffin.francophonie.org/index.php/2015/01/14/55h/).

3. IMED Hackathon (http://www.hackathon.isid.org/) is an example of such appropriation.

4. The innovate.healthcare hackathon (http://munich.innovate.healthcare/) organised by the Center for Innovation and Business Creation, Technical University of Munich is an example.

5. Quoted from http://rhok.cc/about.

6. Direct quotes from the published material rather than the interview are preferred to recognise the interviewee and the organising team’s intellectual work.

7. Quoted from http://gwob.org/hackathon-best-practices/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Research Council under Grant ERC-2012-AdG-323636-SOFTCITY.