Susana Nascimento

Maker Cultures and the Prospects for Technological Action

Supported by easier and cheaper access to tools and expanding communities, maker cultures are pointing towards the ideas of (almost) everyone designing, creating, producing and distributing renewed, new and improved products, machines, things or artefacts. A careful analysis of the assumptions and challenges of maker cultures emphasizes the relevance of what may be called technological action, that is, active and critical interventions regarding the purposes and applications of technologies within ordinary lives, thus countering the deterministic trends of current directions of technology. In such transformative potential, we will explore a set of elements what is and could be technological action through snapshots of maker cultures based on the empirical research conducted in three particular contexts: the Fab Lab Network, Maker Media core outputs and initiatives such as Maker Faires, and the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA). Elements such as control and empowerment through material engagement, openness and sharing, and social, cultural, political and ethical values of the common good in topics such as diversity, sustainability and transparency, are critically analysed.

Citizen Sensing: A Toolkit

We produced this book as a part of the Making Sense project, which draws on nine citizen sensing campaigns in Holland, Kosovo and Spain in 2016 and 2017. In them, we have developed a form of citizen participation in environmental monitoring and action which is bottom-up, participatory and empowering to the community: this is called citizen sensing. If you are interested in best practices and tools for community engagement and co-creation, this book if for you.

Social sciences in the transdisciplinary making of sustainable artifacts

From a transdisciplinary standpoint, we need to address the environmental, economic, social and cultural dimensions of sustainability by calling attention to the key role of social sciences in working with other experts and in engaging stakeholders. This article is focused on present and potential direct contributions from social scientists in the practical realms of designing, producing and using sustainable technologies, while also arguing that more active interventions are not only desirable, but considerably urgent from start to end in these realms. In addition, we argue that such interventions are now facing promising opportunities with upcoming technological trends that range from open design and new maker cultures to rapid prototyping or digital fabrication. These trends already offer several openness routes in technology creation, and consequently foster wider practical and conceptual transdisciplinary platforms to envision, build and share not only physical objects but also the ideas and discussions that constitute them.

Sustainable Technologies and Transdisciplinary Futures: From Collaborative Design to Digital Fabrication

Abstract This paper argues for hands-on, contextual and problem-solving collaborations, that is, for a transdisciplinary approach that establishes direct connections between social and technical disciplines. It is based on our experience as a team of researchers at the Vitruvius Fab Lab (Digital Fabrication Laboratory) of ISCTE-IUL (University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal). The paper presents a particular research and learning initiative–STTF2013 Summer School ‘Sustainable Technologies and Transdisciplinary Futures: From Collaborative Design to Digital Fabrication’, which served as a testbed for our transdisciplinary, critical and open approach. We address its rationale and main challenges, while also discussing recommendations for other transdisciplinary projects striving to integrate social and technical disciplines in research and innovation.