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Fablabs are one of the key points supporting innovation and entrepreneurship today. These centers provide young and innovative entrepreneurs with technical infrastructure, education, and collaboration opportunities, thereby enhancing their growth and success potential. Rapidly adapting to technological advancements, FabLabs facilitate the implementation of innovative projects, thereby fostering economic growth. These incentives create new job opportunities. Therefore, the positive impact of Fablabs on entrepreneurship and innovation is extremely important for economic development and is considered necessary to examine. By fostering an innovative and dynamic business environment, FabLabs contribute to the success of young entrepreneurs and small businesses. Therefore, supporting and proliferating such innovation hubs play a critical role in economic growth and sustainable development. This critical point makes the study different from other studies. This study focuses on the effects of Fablabs in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation and aims to reveal their important role in economic development. In the study, it was seen that Fablabs encourage innovation by supporting entrepreneurship and R&D activities, and provide added value to the economy by increasing the competitiveness of companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the distinctive characteristics of the co-design practices at FabLab Nepal, the first humanitarian FabLab in South Asia? This paper presents select case materials from the project '3D Printing for Spinal Cord Injury' to illustrate how FabLab Nepal operates through collaborative, co-design practices and then reflects on how these observations can enrich a more general understanding of what pluriversal design looks like in practice. Co-design initiatives were developed to suit the local practices and situated knowledge of the project context. What was remarkable was that the participants acknowledged that the co-design approach was not novel, however, they did recognise that its impact was beginning to transform everyday lives, in a gradual transition from survival in a disaster situation to local empowerment and capacity building. In this context, pluriversal design was observed to take the form of knowledge exchange and skills development in the use of printing technology, which gave a voice to the patient's needs and desires in the design and manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En considérant l’écosystème de formation Fablab comme vecteur du développement, d’apprentissage, de l’entrepreneuriat et de référence au métier du numérique, nous avons questionné, à travers cette contribution, les pratiques des formations dans le Fablab Lisungi de Kinshasa et les attentes des apprenants. A travers une approche exclusivement qualitative du type étude de cas, nous avons, à partir des observations des pratiques des formations, décrit cinq éléments du système où des caractéristiques significatives ont apparu d’une manière itérative. Il s’agit des lieux de formation, des acteurs, des évènements, du processus et de l’effet de formation. L’analyse de ces caractéristiques ont permis d’attester que les pratiques de formation développées favorisent un nouveau style d’apprentissage basé sur la co-construction, la mise en place des projets entrepreneurials techno-innovants répondant aux besoins de la population locale et contribuant à l’atteinte des attentes des apprenants. Cet article se propose d’identifier les pratiques de formation entrepreneuriale de Fablab Lisungi en contexte congolais, et en dégager le degré de satisfaction des apprenants en termes des attentes.

El presente trabajo reflexiona en torno a la adaptación de un modelo comunicacional aplicado en el análisis de experiencias de aprendizaje que vincularon la construcción de conocimiento con el uso de tecnologías digitales. Particularmente se analiza un caso de estudio referido a una actividad realizada en el marco de una carrera del área de las Ciencias, Tecnologías, Ingeniería y Matemáticas, y que a su vez incluyó criterios vinculados al Arte (STEAM). Los estudiantes debieron diseñar y construir en grupo un juguete, integrando de manera explícita conceptos vinculados a las áreas citadas y concretando la materialidad del mismo. Para la observación se tomó como punto de partida las cuatro dimensiones conceptuales del modelo: Institucional, Social, Tecnológico e Intermedial, realizando los ajustes necesarios. Las primeras conclusiones dan cuenta de la riqueza analítica del modelo y los aportes propositivos en torno a repensar experiencias de características similares. Se concluye que el desarrollo de Prácticas Educativas Mediatizadas, con una propuesta pedagógica que incluya la participación-acción de docentes y estudiantes, fortalece la perspectiva transdisciplinar en las carreras STEAM, posibilitando que no sólo se contribuya al aprendizaje de tecnologías digitales, sino que también se impulse la innovación tecnológica, bajo la modalidad de FabLab físico-virtual.

Cities are the engine of human development, and increasing urban sustainability is crucial to ensure human prosperity. The development of smart cities generally increases the sustainability of the cities. However, technical and environmental aspects are generally developed in smart cities neglecting socio-economic dimensions. The urban resilience concept includes the complex interactions of environmental, economic, and societal pillars. In this context, the emerging maker movement proposes an economic paradigm shift, with the interaction of humans and technology at the center of urban evolution. This paper proposes a multi-criteria methodology to define and assess the main characteristics of the resilient approach of the projects involving maker practices applied to urban development. The proposed methodology is based on the application of computer-assisted qualitative text analysis and a subsequent classification according to 12 indicators (community and urban efficiency, co-creation and professional, making sense and problem-solving, network and site-specific, implementation and optimization, sustainability-oriented and market-oriented) that define different dimensions of a bottom-up project's resilient approach in three main key principles: inclusiveness, complexity, and durability. The method has been tested in 94 EU-funded projects. This analysis reveals the evolution and orientation of EU-funded projects from economic, technical, and social perspectives. Specifically, the patterns of remediation of non-participatory practices, the weak presence of open innovation initiatives, and the development of activities focusing on co-creation as a participatory tool. The applied methodology could be subsequently implemented at different scales and integrated with LCA in order to evaluate the sustainability of bottom-up projects toward urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to determine the potential for constructive social change that can reach the communities of technology enthusiasts in Russian universities, and to identify possible directions for such changes. University communities of technology enthusiasts and the sites where they work are chosen as the object of research: fab labs, CMITs, circles. The basic conceptual framework of the research is the theory of fields, which asserts that society is a system of embedded social fields. Social changes in this theory are referred to as the transformation of existing social fields or the emergence of new ones. The term “practice of the future” is first introduced, and understood as a group of people united by common interests in advanced technological and social solutions sharing common activities and knowledge (sharing), but not included in a sustainable social field. The hypothesis of the present study is that communities of practice of the future have the capacity for social change and the directions of such changes can be identified through the analysis of strategies that are consistently applied in these communities. The semi-structured in-depth interviews of leaders and participants of university student technological centers are used as the material for the study. The article concludes that the two most obvious social fields in which communities of technology enthusiasts of Russian universities are capable of producing changes are the field of technological entrepreneurship and the field of educational innovation. In the first of these fields, the strategies of technology enthusiasts (initiative, project orientation, diversity and meritocracy) give advantages over players who do not employ these strategies. In the second field (educational innovation) these strategies can give the direction of changes, bringing together enthusiasts of relevant educational technologies. Social changes of the techno-optimistic type generated by the university communities of technology enthusiasts is not yet directed to a specific social field. However, examples of large-scale country-wide projects show that such a field is beginning to form. It is quite possible that modern university communities of technology enthusiasts are able to generate a social field no less powerful than their predecessors – the movement of technological kruzhoks – at the begining of the 20th century.

Learning complex disciplines traditionally requires the adoption of equally articulated methods and strategies. Design does not escape this principle, on the contrary it enhances some of its peculiar characteristics: very different skills, often not aligned development and application times, tools complexity, declare an environment where methods and practice had always defined a non-linear educational scenario (Cennamo et al., 2011). The paper discusses the matter while bringing a case study specifically defined with the purpose to test a new educational scenario where a student is put into conditions to experiment the entire Design process by himself, being connected with different competences inside a complex multidisciplinary environment, in order to develop a physical Design solution for a user with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enormous scale of suffering, breadth of societal impact, and ongoing uncertainty wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic introduced dynamics seldom examined in the crisis entrepreneurship literature. Previous research indicates that when a crisis causes a failure of public goods, spontaneous citizen ventures often emerge to leverage unique local knowledge to rapidly customize abundant external resources to meet immediate needs. However, as outsiders, emergent citizen groups responding to the dire shortage of personal protective equipment at the onset of COVID-19 lacked local knowledge and legitimacy. In this study, we examine how entrepreneurial citizens mobilized collective resources in attempts to gain acceptance and meet local needs amid the urgency of the pandemic. Through longitudinal case studies of citizen groups connected to makerspaces in four U.S. cities, we study how they adapted to address the resource and legitimacy limitations they encountered. We identify three mechanisms—augmenting, circumventing, and attenuating—that helped transient citizen groups calibrate their resource mobilization based on what they learned over time. We highlight how extreme temporality imposes limits on resourcefulness and legitimation, making it critical for collective entrepreneurs to learn when to work within their limitations rather than try to overcome them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé : Cette contribution interroge le bilan de formation aux métiers du numérique de Lisungi Fablab de Kinshasa. Le succès récolté par le Lisungi Fablab installé à Kinshasa en 2018 nous a amené à questionner les pratiques de formation mobilisées et les résultats obtenus en lien avec les attentes des 70 apprenants dans un contexte des défis numériques et éducationnels. Une méthodologie mixte combinant l’approche qualitative et quantitative a permis d’analyser les pratiques de formation, l’environnement matériel d’apprentissage et le niveau d’adéquation entre les pratiques et les attentes des apprenants. Les premiers résultats mettent en lumière des nouvelles formes d’apprentissage, des nouvelles trajectoires professionnelles susceptibles d'alimenter la cartographie des métiers du numérique en RDC.

Design education utilising digital fabrication is characterised by a dynamic project-based learning environment in which ideas are embodied in prototypes. This environment affects the way design and fabrication activities are taught, including sustainability considerations in the process and the outcomes. With the objectives of refining the sustainability indicators in the context of digital fabrication design education and identifying educational interventions for improving sustainability, we analyse the processes and outcomes of a digital fabrication course. We further develop a conceptual framework for sustainable prototyping based on the prototyping and testing stages in the design thinking model. The sustainability considerations in the prototyping process and outcomes in the design education context in FabLab are exemplified. The findings will help enhance sustainability and develop interventions in the context of design education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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BACKGROUND: "Science Dissemination for Scholars with Disabilities" is a noteworthy topic which is still sparse and needs more attention by the scientific community. OBJECTIVE: In order to increase interest in the study of science and on access to research without exclusion emphasis needs to be paid towards innovation within a scientific environment. Our hope is to encourage further consideration by the scientific community and present strategies that promote the full inclusion of scholars with disabilities in society. METHODS: This work is the result of research experiences in the field of Science and Inclusion within the activities carried out at the ICTP Scientific Fabrication Laboratory of Trieste, in Italy, over the last eight years. Description of some issues on the use of open source digital technologies available at Scientific FabLabs to support education and scientific know-how for all are assessed, and a collection of interesting novel approaches developed in our SciFabLab are given as examples. The discussion is presented to motivate further research and give technological priorities. RESULTS: We discuss and show concrete examples on how to make "almost anything" through Scientific FabLabs to disseminate science and remove practical barriers offering people with disabilities more independence and opportunities to study science. Standard theories of Disability in the STEM context are also discussed. CONCLUSIONS: This contribution is relevant from the point of view of the social model in that supportive digital tools developed at Scientific FabLabs can be manufactured with participation, assistance and presence by people with a disability. Through this class of Fablabs, we aim to sustain new generations of scientists without any exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores bioplastics fabrication based on alginate polymer with added glycerine as a plasticizer, creating flexibility, and organic waste was used as a filler avoiding shrinkage. Exploratory, observational and experimental, Literature Review, amongst other methods, were used within a Qualitative and Quantitative Methodology by Design through practice. The research material was documented through an open-source FabLab platform and shared with a community of researchers and future designers who want to design innovative and environmentally friendly materials to replace synthetic plastics. Fifteen different bio-based materials resulted from this experiment, applicable for varied applications. Results show that different fillers added to sodium alginate and glycerine present ample opportunities for sustainable bio-ceramics, bio-composites and bio-plastics.

This contribution attempts to answer the following question: how will the digital revolution affect architecture in the near future? To try to formulate a convincing answer, only very faint signals that come from courageous experiments are available, a result mainly of research work rather than market-proposed stimuli. A handful of researchers in a select number of Universities, armed with extraordinary digital skills and maker-type instrumentation, are creating new experimental constructions in which highly complex design is combined with extremely simple construction, which do not require the manufacturing skills and expensive equipment that populate traditional construction sites. By establishing these lines of development, it would be possible to bring architecture close to the people and restore a central role for the designer in the making of buildings.

Copyright of Agathon: International Journal of Architecture, Art & Design is the property of DEMETRA CE.RI.MED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

En considérant l’écosystème de formation Fablab comme vecteur du développement, d’apprentissage, de l’entrepreneuriat et de référence au métier du numérique, nous avons questionné à travers cet article les pratiques des formations dans le Fablab Lisungi de Kinshasa en République démocratique du Congo et les attentes des apprenants. A travers une approche exclusivement qualitative du type étude de cas. Nous avons, à partir des observations des pratiques des formations, décrit cinq éléments relevés du système où des caractéristiques significatives ont apparu d’une manière itérative. Il s’agit des lieux de formation, des acteurs, des évènements, du processus et de l’effet de formation. L’analyse de ces caractéristiques ont permis d’attester que les pratiques de formation développées favorisent un nouveau style d’apprentissage basé sur la co-construction, la mise en place des projets entrepreneurials techno-innovants répondant aux besoins de la population locale et contribuant à l’atteinte des attentes des apprenants au terme des formations reçues. L’objectif de la recherche est celui d’analyser les pratiques des formations au sein du dispositif fablab de Kinshasa. Il s’agit de décrire les pratiques lors des formations qui provoquent des changements tangibles en termes de prototypage d’objets en projets entrepreneurials techno-innovants et viables et mettre en évidence les caractéristiques liées à l’environnement matériel, d’apprentissage et technique du fablab.

This paper disagrees from a fatalistic scenario for institutions organization, especially those linked to economic matters. For Roberto Mangabeira Unger this is called 'dictatorship of no alternatives'. This scenario defies us to think about alternatives. We discuss about Unger’s social theory, emphasizing a notion of productive vanguards, connecting them to a practical, productive experience is growing worldwide: the FabLabs and the Maker Movement. With a bibliographical research characterizing the main points of the productive vanguards, as well as a field visit to a FabLab in Rio de Janeiro, we concluded that some of its particularities, such as tolerance with error, the task-review process and the sharing practice, connect the FabLabs with the notion of vanguards, in order to deepen the democratic transformation of the market economy.

The idea of makerspace in a library is one that has re-emphasized the importance of library spaces in today's digitally controlled society. Makerspace as a concept promote creative learning, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills among people and also inspires them to shift from being passive consumers to active creators. The library makerspace provides space for people of all ages to build prototypes, explore new ideas, and build something together, thus enhancing human capacity building among library users. Consequently, this paper theoretically examined makerspace as a library tool for capacity building in developing countries. The concept of makerspace, makerspace tools, and the best practices for effective makerspace were discussed. The paper also explored makerspace as a library tool for capacity building as well as the challenges faced in creating library makerspaces. The paper concluded that library makerspaces provide a safe place for people to feel comfortable creating and using powerful tools without feeling pressured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Shared spaces dedicated to digital fabrication such as Fablabs and Makerspaces, together with co-working spaces and start-ups incubators, are said to contribute to the sociospatial reconfiguration of work in digital urban economies characterised by sharing practices and self-organization. However, part of the academic literature on the topic partially reproduces the representations of Makers provided by the mainstream discourse developed by tech-gurus and consultants, which understand them as entrepreneurial innovators. Moreover, when Making is analysed as a new form of work, its spatial dimensions are identified either in the city or in the organisation in which Makers gather, considering both as bounded containers. To offer a more nuanced conceptualisation of Makers' work and arguing that Making as a new, heterogeneous form of value production entails different spatialities, the paper claims for analyses that start from a practical, relational, and more-than-human understanding of what Makers do. Drawing on a recent post-structuralist strand in economic geography and mobilising an Actor-Network sensibility, the article claims for an approach to the study of Makers and Fablabs as economic phenomena that goes beyond understanding them as part of a new urban infrastructure of workplaces targeting self-organised, entrepreneurial, yet collaborative individuals in the age of digital capitalism. Through the ethnographic study of a community of Makers that gather around the main Fablab of the post-industrial Italian city Turin, the paper shows how heterogeneous actor-networks translate Making as a form of value production in multiple and contingent ways, in which the distinction between production and reproduction is variously challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this post-industrial digital era, the average person has access to the tools and opportunity to design, produce, and share their ideas. The concept of Open Design aims to drive a paradigm shift in the way Product and Industrial Design is created, shared, and commercialized. Nonetheless, there are a series of obstacles that deter potential users from experimenting with this new way of designing. For example, we can look at the hazards presented by additive manufacturing on accessible design files to produce weapons. But through Open Design new business models are flourishing. These models hold great promise for the future of design--more direct contact with the consumer through co-creation, distributed manufacturing, and engagement with the FabLab network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution investigates the dynamics of knowledge creation at the local level, building, in particular, on the interactions between formal and informal entities. Two theoretical constructions are brought together in order to do so: the middleground concept and the notion of commons. By associating these two concepts, the goal is to introduce a revised perspective on local dynamics of knowledge, which details how informal and formal entities interact with one another in order to drive local ideation processes and how these processes are structured in order to generate innovative outputs. The case of FabLabs is drawn upon in order to illustrate how the middleground and commons concepts can be mobilized to describe and better understand these local dynamics of knowledge creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maker movement is a social movement with a craft spirit through which digital fabrication methods have become accessible at a personal level. Public libraries are ideal for offering makerspaces that enable the collaborative use of tools and technologies to foster informal learning. Three-dimensional (3D) printing has been one of the keys to the expansion of the maker movement, and its presence in libraries, often identified as the "gateway" to the maker philosophy, is not unusual, albeit remaining more a desire than a reality. We recount herein our experience of purchasing and setting up a 3D printer to enable a reflection on makerspaces in a public library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and STEAM (with A for Arts) have evolved to symbolize the renewal of science education. STEAM education offers a number of benefits, such as improved problem analysis and solving skills, as well as the development of creative abilities. Many researchers reiterate the importance of STEAM-related activities and programs, especially the integration of maker education. Despite much interest in STEAM, it is often challenging for many educators to incorporate integrated activities into their teaching practice. This paper deals with the value of STEAM integration in a methodological sense, with a focus on the maker's laboratory and physical computing, as well as the application of design thinking and computational thinking approaches. Motivation and Objectives: The goal of this study is to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework for integrated STEM curricula focusing on the following research questions: (a) how to improve daily activities of STEM education by combining the activities of different laboratories and using a design thinking approach? and (b) how to combine FabLab activities and physical computing related to teaching different aspects of computational thinking in the context of STEM? Research Methodology and Methods: As a research methodology, we implement a mixed methods strategy to combine theoretical study and empirical research based on a synthesized literature survey and the process of iterative model development based on an observational case study. We conduct a detailed case study of two applications of integrated activities based on FabLab and physical computing integration, and illustrate how design thinking can guide teachers to open up for interdisciplinary, creative, and project-based opportunities. Results and Findings: The paper provides a conceptual framework for STEM integration activities and step-by-step guidelines on how design thinking methods could could interact in practice. The implications of the results may be useful for educators seeking recommendations for the integration process, which enable educators to design hands-on activities and incorporate integrated aspect of students' STEAM learning into teaching practice. In conclusions, the authors suggest that as interdisciplinary crossroads, design thinking provides a natural bridge between subjects, and fits especially to integrate activities of the maker's labs and physical computing, focusing on the integration of computational thinking and computational making approaches within STEM education environment. The absence of a statistical evaluation, which is positioned as a further research step, may be mentioned as a limitation of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O artigo questiona o suposto cenário fatalista para a organização das instituições, especialmente daquelas de ordem econômica. É o que Roberto Mangabeira Unger chama de ‘ditadura da falta de alternativas’. Diante deste cenário urge pensar sobre as alternativas. Discute aspectos da teoria social de Unger, ao enfatizar a noção das vanguardas produtivas e conectá-las a uma experiência produtiva prática que vem ganhando espaço mundialmente: os FabLabs e o movimento maker. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica que caracteriza os principais pontos das vanguardas produtivas, bem como da visita de campo a um FabLab no Rio de Janeiro, concluiu-se que algumas de suas particularidades, como a tolerância com o erro, a revisão das tarefas e a prática do compartilhamento coadunam-se com a noção das vanguardas, de modo a potencializar transformação democratizadora da economia de mercado.

La facilidad de acceso a la tecnología ha propiciado la llegada de una nueva revolución industrial que capacita a los ciudadanos para dejar de ser meros usuarios y convertirse en creadores y constructores de sus propios bienes, apoyándose en las tendencias sociales basadas en la cultura colaborativa. El surgimiento de los Fablab -Fabrication Laboratory- como entornos que potencian dichas capacidades en los usuarios ha sido decisiva en esta democratización tecnológica, y sigue un ritmo creciente incesante, extendiéndose de forma llamativa por todo el planeta. A través de siete etapas, descritas en este artículo, se presenta el proceso de construcción y validación de la herramienta de obtención de información denominada FabLab Global Survey con el objetivo de conocer y caracteriza el fenómeno FabLab. La falta de referentes teóricos y la limitada bibliografía académica sobre el tema hace necesario el diseño de dicha herramienta basándonos en aportaciones de los expertos en el fenómeno FabLab y, para ello, se consideró adecuada su validación mediante el método Delphi, ya que permite la transmisión de la información subjetiva aportada por los expertos, respetando sus peculiaridades. El reto al que nos enfrentamos como investigadores estriba en nuestra capacidad de transformar los resultados obtenidos para su valoración a través de herramientas analíticas cuantitativas. Para compensar y equilibrar la subjetividad de las opiniones expresadas por el panel de expertos mediante escalas nominales, se emplea el Modelo de Torgerson, que permite un reescalamiento de la escala original cualitativa en una escala de intervalo (cuantitativa) verificando la equivalencia entre ellas. Asimismo, y una vez contrastada la adecuación de la escala utilizada, se realiza un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de las aportaciones generadas por el grupo de expertos que permiten perfilar las características del cuestionario resultante. La excelente acogida de la Fablab Global Survey obtenida durante la distribución entre los gestores de los FabLabs -que señalan su idoneidad y acierto en la selección de cuestiones planteadas- muestra la adecuación del método Delphi para la generación de herramientas de investigación que permitan, como es el caso que nos ocupa, abrir nuevas líneas de investigación. The ease of access to technology has led to the arrival of a new industrial revolution that enables citizens to stop being mere users and become creators and builders of their own assets, relying on social trends based on collaborative culture. The emergence of the Fablab -Fabrication Laboratory- as environments that enhance these capacities in the users has been decisive in this technological democratization, and continues in an incessant rhythm, extending by the whole planet. Through seven stages, we describe in this article, the process of construction and validation of the information retrieval tool called FabLab Global Survey, with the objective of characterizing the FabLab phenomenon. The lack of theoretical references and the limited academic literature on the subject makes necessary to design such a tool based on contributions from the experts in the FabLab phenomenon and, for this purpose, it was considered appropriate to validate it using the Delphi method, since it allows the transmission of the subjective information provided by the experts, respecting their peculiarities. The challenge we face as researchers lies in our ability to transform the results obtained for their valuation through quantitative analytical tools. To compensate and balance the subjectivity of the opinions expressed by the panel of experts using nominal scales, the Torgerson`s Model is used, which allows a rescaling of the original qualitative scale on an interval scale (quantitative) by verifying the equivalence between them. Likewise, and once the adequacy of the scale used is verified, a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the contributions generated by the group of experts is carried out, allowing to profile the characteristics of the resulting questionnaire. The excellent reception of the Fablab Global Survey obtained during the distribution among the managers of the FabLabs - which point out their suitability of the questions - shows the appropriateness of the Delphi method for the generation of research tools that allow, as it is the case in hand, open new lines of research.

This paper argues for rethinking the economic geography of sharing and making in light of the recent proliferation of open innovation, makerspaces and maker movements. Using empirical research from an example of one such makerspace – Manchester's FabLab – and engaging with a range of geographical literatures on making, sharing economies, and digital fabrication, we develop a critical account of sharing in principle and in practice. The portrayal of open innovation spaces, such as FabLabs, as novel makerspaces of alterity and sharing is a common and underpinning theme in both academic and marketing literature (Aldrich, 2014; Anderson, 2012; Doherty, 2012; Fab Foundation, 2012; Gershenfeld, 2005; Suire, 2019). However, our findings suggest that the values espoused by the FabLab, of involvement, connection and affinity, are quite literally being revised and rejected by makers who use the space. Time, labour and knowledge were for the most part described by participants as precious commodities to be savoured rather than shared. Thus, while sharing is an ordinarily economic practice, this does not mean it is always, inevitably or evenly employed by economic actors and communities, especially within counter-cultural networks. If these are to be the economies of the future, we implore economic geographers to critically engage further with the complexities of and within maker spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the spread of open-design environments and various types of digital fabrication tools (e.g., computer numerical control machines, laser cutting devices, and 3D printers), the "maker movement" or "personal fabrication" has been spreading worldwide over the past decade. This case study introduces grassroots activities in Japan that employ personal fabrication tools to manage the COVID-19 crisis, focusing on the co-design of do-it-yourself face shields for healthcare workers. We address the various issues emerging with face shield production: (1) development of face shield designs and materials, (2) examination and information sharing regarding the practicality and safety of open-source designs, and (3) collaboration with local factories. Thus, we demonstrate the significance of maker contributions to COVID-19 and provide suggestions to address future challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Competitividade e Sustentabilidade - ComSus is the property of Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Shared machine shops are designed for providing space for education, learning practices, however it is also being questioned if they are accessible and for whom, depending on their location, communication practices and the entry-point in knowledge. Nonetheless the narrative of innovation and creativeness being attached to these spaces, the shades, openness or even absence of innovation is of a scholarly quest. Moreover, their function of enabling designers-entrepreneurs with infrastructure, collaborative practices and expertise is at the forefront. This paper looks at the composition of hybrid business models behind the activity of a set of shared machine shops: a fablab, a makerspace, a hackerspace, and printervendor company and how it may be linked to the education and innovation practices performed by the members and visitors. In search for if and how they represent dots of change on the landscape of design, this paper examines the facilities and opportunities for young designers, students, and makers to engage with digital technologies in Budapest, in a context where public schools and universities lack the access to fablabs and maker laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]