CARE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF HACKER IDENTITIES, COMMUNITIES, AND SOCIETY

Abstract

Recent scholarship in Human-Computer Interaction, science and technology studies, and design research has focused on hacker communities as sites of innovation and entrepreneurship, novel forms of education, and the democratization of technological production. However, hacking practices are more than new technical practices; they are also political, value-laden, and ideological practices. The significances of these underlying commitments is less understood not only in academic research, but also within the communities themselves, which tend to profess a libertarian ethos often articulated as apolitical. In this dissertation, I investigate how the process of developing a hacker identity within a hacker community is influenced not only by technical skill, but also by care and community maintenance practices. By studying their projects, community interactions, and social policies, I explore how the broader hackerspace movement unintentionally but systematically excludes broader participation. I leverage several qualitative methods to create a well-rounded account of the hacker identity development process, including: an interview study of hackers’ projects; a 19-month ethnography in a hackerspace; and an analysis of the most-discussed issues on the international hackerspaces.org Discuss listserv. I analyzed these data through a lens informed by care ethics, foregrounding the interdependent, nurturing relationships hackers develop, and explicating the duties to care that are felt and acted on—but rarely discussed—in these spaces. I present results suggesting that developing a hacker identity can be a vulnerable process, and is both supported and made difficult by the social environment in these communities. While critical to a hackerspace’s success, care and maintenance practices are often overshadowed by rhetoric of self-empowerment and independence. As a result, it becomes difficult for women and minorities to join and fit in, despite members’ best intentions. These results have implications for research on hackerspaces, for hackerspaces themselves, and for analyses of care in such communities.