Making community: the wider role of makerspaces in public life

Nicholas Taylor, Ursula Hurley, Philip Connolly

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    144 Citations (Scopus)
    1179 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Makerspaces—public workshops where makers can share tools and knowledge—are a growing resource for amateurs and professionals alike. While the role of makerspaces in innovation and peer learning is widely discussed, we attempt to look at the wider roles that makerspaces play in public life. Through site visits and interviews at makerspaces and similar facilities across the UK, we have identified additional roles that these spaces play: as social spaces, in supporting wellbeing, by serving the needs of the communities they are located in and by reaching out to excluded groups. Based on these findings, we suggest implications and future directions for both makerspace organisers and community researchers.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationCHI '16
    Subtitle of host publication Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
    Pages1415–1425
    Number of pages11
    ISBN (Electronic)9781450333627
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 7 May 2016
    EventCHI 2016 - San Jose, United States
    Duration: 7 May 201612 May 2016
    https://chi2016.acm.org/wp/ (Link to conference website)

    Conference

    ConferenceCHI 2016
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CitySan Jose
    Period7/05/1612/05/16
    Internet address

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