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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mathieu ONeil <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 1:56 AM
Subject: [ACS] Deadline extension - Shared Machine Shops
To: [log in to unmask]


Apologies for crossposting

Call for Papers - Special issue of the Journal of Peer Production
Shared Machine Shops: Beyond Local Prototyping and Manufacturing

Deadline extended by two weeks - 15 October 2013

Editors: Maxigas (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), Peter Troxler
(International Fab Lab Association, Rotterdam University of Applied
Sciences)

In the last years we have witnessed an incredible proliferation of shared
machine shops in a confusing number of genres: hackerspaces, makerspaces,
Fab Labs and their more commercial counterparts such as TechShops,
co-working spaces, accelerators and incubators.

These are currently "fringe phenomena" because they play a minor role in
the production of wealth, knowledge, political consensus and the social
organisation of life. Interestingly, however, they also experience the same
core transformations as contemporary capitalism. That is, for the
individual: the convergence of work, labour and other aspects of life. On a
systemic level: the rapid development of algorithmically driven technical
systems and their intensifying role in social organisation. Finally, as a
corollary: the practical and legitimation crisis of modern institutions,
echoed by renewed attempts at self-organisation.

Arguably, hackers occupied such an ambiguous position since the beginning
of hackerdom, but shared machine shops represent a new configuration. They
appear as embodied communities organised in research and production units
of physical and logical goods; they even appear to escape the subcultural
ghetto as educational institutions, museums, and libraries start to
integrate them into their ambit. They are eminent laboratories in both
their practices and products: as experimental forms of social institutions,
and as the developers of technological prototypes projecting new visions of
the future. Industry actors, state authorities and policy makers have
recognised such milieus as prolific grounds for recruitment and new
organisational models, which in itself warrants critical attention.

Inspired by all these developments, we dedicate the next special issue of
the Journal of Peer Production to Fab Labs and similar places.

Some of the questions we are interested in exploring:

* What are the historical conditions and concrete genealogies which enabled
the emergence of shared machine shops? (Can we talk about the renewed
relevance of craftsmanship?)

* Are rapid prototyping practices changing the relationships to technology,
research and development, and innovation? (Are shared machine shops
democratising knowledge and production or rather building a new maker
elite?)

* How do technologies cultivated in shared machine shops such as personal
fabrication intervene in urban and rural geographies? (Is the time ripe for
"global villages" or we have to adapt to "smart cities"?)

* What new and old anthropologies and ethics are articulated in shared
machine shops? (Who is the “New Man” of Peer Production?)

* Finally, how do shared machine shops interface with the political economy
of contemporary capitalism and the military-industrial complex? (If the
means of production are in the hands of the workers, is that free labour, a
new form of outsourcing, or the germ for a next revolution?)

Beyond local prototyping and manufacturing capability, what is the
contribution of shared machine shops to critical practices of technology
appropriation, to products, services and consumption patterns, to urban and
rural geographies, and to practical political economy and ethics?

Contributions are welcome from scholars and practitioners alike.
Collaborative efforts are encouraged. We are mainly expecting academic
papers on the one hand, and commented project documentations or narrative
vignettes on the other hand, but anything that can be presented on a
website could work. However, submitters are advised to keep in mind that
the content should address questions of consequence to practitioners, based
on realities on the ground, while at the same time they should be reflexive
and consider their wider intellectual context.

Submission proposals of up to 500 words due by September 30th, 2013, and
should be sent to [log in to unmask]

Submissions will be notified by October 30, 2013, and full papers and
materials (research papers around 8,000 words, testimonies and documents
around 3,000 words) are due by January 31st, 2014, for review. Final
submission deadline is June 1st, 2014. The special issue is due to appear
in early July 2014.

Research papers are peer reviewed according to JoPP review policies.

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