Argumentaire

Fabulous Fabulists: From Utopian Projects to Practical Projects, Between Third Places and Alternative Spaces

The perception of public space has evolved in recent years due to widespread calls for universal rights of access to the information, knowledge and skills necessary for economic, social, and citizenship development, as well as for the broadest possible participation in public debate. Such calls for social change have been voiced on a global scale and in particular by countries where educational systems have not yet firmly established universal basic education, such as countries in sub-Saharan Africa.  This worldwide phenomenon can be seen as part of a movement in favor of knowledge commons, citizen empowerment (Maury, Hedjerassi, 2020) and the pursuit of cognitive justice (Piron et al., 2016), with a strong social and collective dimension. In line with this logic we find the progressive expansion and structuring of digital cultures fostering the use of machines, techniques, languages, algorithms and information. Emphasis is placed on three phenomena: ways of thinking, object production, and social interactions within digital networks. This movement involves acquiring renewed skills, with the ability to build objects through a creative, collaborative approach using techniques and tools made available to the public and shared in open spaces.

The philosophy of FabLabs responds to this collective concern for the co-construction of knowledge and skills through "doing" and « making ». The concept of the FabLab was invented in the late 1990s by Neil Gershenfeld, a physics professor at MIT. Gershenfeld introduced the notion by adding a specific charter to existing makerspaces. The label « Fablab » has since become a generic term and often describes makerspaces that do not officially adhere to the Fabacademy or its charter. Makerspaces themselves derive from hackerspaces that are equipped with machines and often defend an ethical stance inherited from hackers. The term "hacker" appeared in 1984 in a book by Steven Levy. The author describes the atypical uses of technology, especially of digital technology, by members of the MIT Tech Model Railroad Club. By the late 1950s, they were already redesigning and redirecting telephone systems when the first computers arrived at the university. They adapted machines whose originally intended uses were to make music, play video games, or perform calculations. Their practices spanned multiple disciplines: arts, computer science, engineering, or sciences. They dared to defy rules in their use of machines, and most importantly, they shared their codes, unlike usual practices. To describe the functioning of this group, Steven Levy proposed an ethical charter. More recently, sociologist Michel Lallement has analyzed third place makerspaces from the perspective of their relationship to work, describing these spaces as centered on the desire to learn and to create through « doing » and through  « living together » as well as through opposition to all forms of control.  The collective work carried out in these spaces focuses not only on the material aspects of object production or manufacture but also on a co-creative approach (production with peers, ideation, iteration, prototyping, sharing). This work also entails developing the software necessary to operate tools or to advance projects as for example in the area of robotics, on the social dimensions of creation, or on mutual aid systems among actors.

With the proliferation of third places and the development of extensive reflection on the link between spaces and learning (Maury, Kovacs, Condette, 2018), recent years have seen an increase in the number of projects and programs targeting school audiences, marginalized youth or young people who have dropped out of educational programs or individuals who are geographically removed from traditional cultural offerings. FabLabs have become platforms for facilitating the transmission of scientific and technical culture through three fundamental elements:

• Changing the teacher/learner relationship,
• Learning by doing and by trial and error,
• "Doing together," and building a community of shared interests, practices, and values.

As a result of these tendencies, the need to imagine or to reimagine mediation and intermediation devices and initiatives has emerged, in order to bring projects closer to social realities and to ensure links between science and society through shared information, documentation, and communication practices. Above all, the objectives in developing new mediation and intermediation practices are to sustain learning beyond the moment of designing and producing objects or devices. The FabLab-More project aims to support the development of FabLabs through a logic of social inclusion (rather than technological innovation) and to continue and deepen our understanding of third places as participatory spaces for knowledge construction and dissemination. In this research project, FabLab spaces and activities are analyzed by considering the cognitive, social, and intercultural dimensions at play.

The fourth "Knowledge and Information in Action" conference, in the context of the ANR SAPS FabLab-More research project, aims to bring together researchers and actors from FabLabs, as well as from other types of third places, who share common values related to knowledge commons, digital technology, open science, and digital craftsmanship. The conference addresses the environmental, societal, and social responsibilities underlying the use of spaces and technologies. We seek to explore both local and remote communities of practice and the chain of actors involved in mediation and intermediation within various geographies and places of fabrication. The term « fabulists » in the conference title encompasses all actors in these spaces regardless of their status (including "users," work-study interns, short-term participant learners), and regardless of the duration of their stay or the types of activities carried out in FabLabs or similar spaces.

The conference is open to researchers in the humanities and social sciences, in digital sciences and engineering, as well as to professional actors working in the domains of scientific, digital, documentary, or technical mediation.

Proposals are invited on the five following conference themes :

    1) Political and social dimensions of maker spaces

FabLabs and other third places with a goal of social inclusion exist in communities of various scales (from neighborhoods or large metropoltan areas to villages). These spaces can be seen as locations "providing individuals with professional quality technical resources and machines in a sociability network governed by the principles of freely shared knowledge" (Burret 2017). Regardless of their origin, which varies according to academic, political, and economic contexts, these spaces are open to the the local community, creating a public space for individuals and groups using technologies and skills. These spaces occasionally develop an aim of social resistance, particularly with regard to hacker movements (Lallement, 2015). Their scope of action goes well beyond the use of tools since we can observe the goal of promoting social communication, in cities or villages. What dynamics are at play? What values are expressed through discourse? Can FabLabs be considered public spaces that foster engagement in social and environmental issues? Can we see these spaces as being diverted from a role of alternative protest towards conventional third places?

2) Methods and ethics of analysis

Research projects on third places and FabLabs have increased in recent years, with diverse approaches and key questions, ranging from engineering and managerial questions, to technological andr political issues. In the humanities and social sciences, and in particular in information and communication sciences, these spaces have attracted the attention of researchers interested in the modes of information and communication practices as well as learning processes specific to makerspace activities. These research questions and issues have led to complex qualitative approaches, most often of an ethnographic nature, aimed at observing and understanding knowledge and meaning making processes as they develop through  « making » and « doing ». We can consider these spaces as providing methodological laboratories for research, which thus invite us to reflect upon the methods and tools of observing, recording and analyzing activities in a non-intrusive and respectful way. What methodological and even epistemological questions arise for researchers who study FabLabs and makerspaces, who seek to observe and record knowledge in action? How does Fablab research influence the activity of FabLab actors? Are forms of collaborative research possible? Can « frugal science » help develop participatory methods that reduce the risk of knowledge extractivism (Henry, Saint-Martin and Diminescu 2023)?

3) Documenting maker spaces

The FabLab-More project focuses on the communication processes surrounding FabLab activities and projects. In these « spaces of doing », documentation practices and processes structure activities and contribute to stabilizing knowledge through archiving (memory creating), communication and knowledge management (sharing know-how and experiences). If as Rumpala suggests, “documenting the processes of production and, above all, freely disseminating information makes it possible to create a form of commons, by sharing knowledge or experiences which can then be taken up by others” (Rumpala 2014), methods and processes of creating and managing information and communication systems in FabLabs are quite heterogeneous. In daily operation, the question often arises as to which information and documentation tools to use (Akter et al., 2021): to what extent do the information and communication tools proposed, used and sometimes co-constructed enable “cooperative transactions” (Zacklad, 2020) ?  What use is made or can be made of activity logs, notebooks,  and other trace recording or transforming devices in documentary and digital practices and activity? What information and documentation standards and formats should be considered ? What social, semiotic or cognitive dimensions of communication and information practice should be taken into account? What modes of narration should be used to transform activities into knowledge? Can all of the heterogeneous knowledge that circulates (Adell 2011) become the object of formalization?

4) Emergence of new relationships with knowledge between generations and actors

The social dimensions of FabLabs are essential ;these « spaces of doing » constitute complex ecosystems in which actors’ positions are structured. While all actors are « fabulists » (makers), they develop relationships of knowledge and power or refusal of power which are essential to identify. These relationships concern Fablab managers and mediators vis-à-vis the public (if FabLabs users can indeed be considered a “public”), as well as FabLab users among themselves. Fablab users come from different generations and social backgrounds, have various levels of expertise and specific experiences, goals, representations and relationships to knowledge. Can we characterize these relationships and identify types of relationships that are spectific to the FabLab ecosystem? Can FabLabs be considered as possible levers of school knowledge (Gourlet, 2018)? Can they be considered by schools as positive heterotopias, learning space-times which can be formalized (Nal 2015)? The examples of FabLabs in French-speaking Africa open a path towards the creation of commons (Leyronas et al., 2018) for the training of “digital artisans” and more broadly for the development of a shared digital culture based on the needs of the community (NKoudou, 2020). In South America as well, dynamics of “decentralized innovation” (Gil, 2022) can be observed.

5) Diversity of emerging spaces in the city

The FabLabs' role in the city depends on  contexts and regional policies (Ferchaud 2018). Fablabs are places in the anthropological sense, that is to say, spaces of social relations, to be considered in their relationship to the geographical, natural and inhabited environment. Collective or shared gardens and vegetable gardens, repair or recycling workshops, participatory cafes, occupations of former industrial sites by artist collectives, are part of the same phenomenon of searching for spaces for communication, commitment, social demands, and sharing. Can we characterize modes of “place” or of spatiality which are common to these various spaces? Would this characterization depend upon modes of creation or production? or upon approaches used (participatory design, etc.)? or communication? Can we consider these “heterotopias” or “counter-spaces”, to be places of emancipation?

Submit your proposal

We invite abstracts of 3000 characters including spaces and bibliography (in French, English or Spanish) before April 15, 2024. Two types of proposals are possible: research papers or critical reflexion on practical experiences. All those involved in FabLabs and other « third places » are welcome to submit proposals. The abstract should present :  key issues, theoretical framework if relevant, methodology, fieldwork site(s), results if relevant.

20 minute presentations will be organized into panels and will take place in person and in single sessions.

A poster session is also possible (please submit a 200 word abstract).

The conference proceedings will be published online and in a book based on a selection of final texts.

To submit your proposal, please go to the following link:

https://cia4.sciencesconf.org/user/submissions

In order to submit a proposal, authors need to have or to create a Sciencesconf account and to be logged in to their account.