Afterlives of the California Ideology| Local Ambivalences Toward the Maker Ideology: Makerspaces, the Maker Mindset, and the Maker Movement

Abstract

At the core of the globalized Maker movement are the “Maker mindset” and imaginaries of a “new industrial revolution.” Both embody elements of the Californian Ideology in an ongoing yet asymmetrical conversation between the U.S. organizational elite and local Makerspaces. This article explores these dynamics on the basis of a media ethnography carried out at four Makerspaces in Berlin and London. First, we will address the extent to which the Maker ideology provides a framing discourse for the establishment of local Makerspaces. We then look at casual references that are made about the Maker ideology. Finally, we reflect on how the Maker ideology is appropriated into the local realm. All this amounts to what we call local ambivalences toward the Maker ideology: The local spaces refer critically to the larger Maker movement, and it is precisely through this critique that parts of the Californian Ideology are embedded.