This chapter examines DIY (do-it-yourself) politics in the realm of practice. To do this, it follows the work of a group of media activists whose work foregrounded engagement with communication technologies. Working in a self-consciously collaborative mode, the activists promoted hands-on work with radio and Internet hardware as a means to enact…[Read more]

Keyword entry on the term “geek”, exploring its drift over time from circus performer to weak person to technological enthusiast, tracing evolution over history of radio and computing.

This paper examines imaginaries of work and labor in “open technology” projects (especially open source software and hackerspaces), based on ethnographic research in North America. It zeroes in on “diversity initiatives” within open technology projects. These initiatives are important because they expose many of the assumptions and tension…[Read more]

This article contextualizes discourses surrounding new media technologies by examining activism around community media, using as a case study an activist group that has advocated for greater citizen access to low-power FM (LPFM) radio since the mid-1990s. It argues that the significance of new and emerging communication technologies can be grasped…[Read more]

This article follows media activists trying to transform the media system by broadening access to technology and skills. These activists intend for tech- nological engagement to be compatible with a range of social identities, but their hopes are not always achieved. It is difficult to cultivate forms of technical affinity and expertise not…[Read more]

Traces collaborations and points of friction between groups, including publicly engaged scholars, in the media democracy movement of the 1990s-2000s.

Scholars have explored the influence of the field of cybernetics on scientific thought and disciplines. However, from the inception of the field, ‘‘cyberneticians’’ had explicitly envisioned applications reaching beyond the purview of scientific disciplines; cybernetics was remarkable for its portability and potential application in a wide variety…[Read more]

This article considers two activist projects involving attempts to export communication technologies. Groups of technologists based in the United States and Europe designed a radio station and an “oral wiki” for use in Tanzania and Rwanda, respectively. Both projects stalled before they could be fully implemented. But they did not languish bec…[Read more]

Dunbar-Hester vividly cuts to the heart of gender issues embedded within computing cultures by exploring questions of “diversity” tied to FLOSS
and hackerspace projects. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork within these sites, she reveals a wide array of motivations behind diversity programs. In doing so, she assesses the potential of such pro…[Read more]

In this paper, I consider the activities of a group of individuals who tinker with and build radio hardware in an informal setting called ‘Geek Group’. They conceive of Geek Group as a radical pedagogical activity, which constitutes an aspect of activism surrounding citizen access to low-power FM radio. They are also concerned with combating the…[Read more]

This course explores histories of forced migration in the Middle East and South Asia during the twentieth century. Looking at the role of colonialism, partition, and social unrest in driving the movement of refugees, IDPs, and stateless peoples, we examine how everyday struggles for refugee protection, asylum, and citizenship influence regional…[Read more]