How Open Is the Maker Movement? Integrative Literature Review of the Openness Practices in the Global Maker Movement

This article explores the multiple meanings of the concept of openness in the global maker movement. Openness is viewed as one of the key principles of the maker movement. As the global maker movement is a bricolage of diverse and situated practices and traditions, there are also many different interpretations and ways of practicing openness. We have explored this diversity with an integrative literature review, relying on the Web of Science™ database. We identified three interrelated but also, in part, mutually contested approaches to openness. Firstly, openness often refers to applying open hardware. Secondly, it is in many cases related to the inclusion and empowerment of various groups in making. Thirdly, openness appears to be seen as a means to pursue economic growth through increasing innovation activity and entrepreneurship. Our results also highlight the substantial barriers encountered by makers while aiming to open up their practices. These barriers include: value conflicts in which openness is overridden by other important values; exclusion of lower income groups from making due to a lack of resources; and difficulties in maintaining long-term activities. The different meanings of openness together with the barriers create tensions within the maker movement while implementing openness. We propose that engaging in a reflexive futures dialogue on the consequences of these tensions can enhance the maker movement to become more open, inclusive and resilient. View Full-Text

Keywords: maker movement; openness; critical making; open hardware; inclusion; tensions

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Saari, H.; Åkerman, M.; Kieslinger, B.; Myllyoja, J.; Sipos, R. How Open Is the Maker Movement? Integrative Literature Review of the Openness Practices in the Global Maker Movement. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13559. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413559

AMA Style

Saari H, Åkerman M, Kieslinger B, Myllyoja J, Sipos R. How Open Is the Maker Movement? Integrative Literature Review of the Openness Practices in the Global Maker Movement. Sustainability. 2021; 13(24):13559. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413559

Chicago/Turabian Style

Saari, Hanna, Maria Åkerman, Barbara Kieslinger, Jouko Myllyoja, and Regina Sipos. 2021. "How Open Is the Maker Movement? Integrative Literature Review of the Openness Practices in the Global Maker Movement" Sustainability 13, no. 24: 13559. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413559

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

How Open Is the Maker Movement? Integrative Literature Review of the Openness Practices in the Global Maker Movement

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI