New Journal Starts: Critical Studies in Peer Production

Under the umbrella of Oekonux-Project a new journal has been created: Critical Studies in Peer Production. Here is the first Call for Paper for a special issue:

Expanding the frontiers of hacking: Bio-punks, open hardware, and hackerspaces

A special issue of Critical Studies in Peer Production. Edited by: Johan Soderberg and Alessandro Delfanti.

Call: 500-word abstract. Both theoretical and empirical contributions accepted.

During  the past two decades, hacking has chiefly been associated with software  development. This is now changing as new walks of life are being  explored with a hacker mindset, thus bringing back to memory the origin  of hacking in hardware development. Now as then, the hacker is  characterised by an active approach to technology, undaunted by  hierarchies and established knowledge, and finally a commitment to  sharing information freely. In this special issue of Critical Studies in  Peer Production, we will investigate how these ideas and practices are  spreading. Two cases which have caught much attention in recent years  are open hardware development and garage biology. The creation of  hacker/maker-spaces in many cities around the world has provided an  infrastructure facilitating this development. We are looking for both  empirical and theoretical contributions which critically engage with  this new phenomenon. Every kind of activity which relates to hacking is  potentially of interest. Some theoretical questions which might be  discussed in the light of this development include, but are not  restricted to, the politics of hacking, the role of lay expertise, how  the line between the community and markets is negotiated, how  development projects are managed, and the legal implications of these  practices. We welcome contributions from all the social sciences,  including science & technology studies, design and art-practices,  anthropology, legal studies, etc.

Interested authors should  submit an abstract of no more than 500 words by July 10, 2011. Authors  of accepted papers will be notified by July 31. All papers will be  subject to peer review before being published.

Abstracts should be sent to delfanti at sissa dot it

Critical  Studies in Peer Production (CSPP) is a new open access, online journal  that focuses on the implications of peer production for social change.  http://cspp.oekonux.org/