"It's Just Like doing Meditation"

Abstract

Men's sheds are community makerspaces where retired men can socialize and cooperatively organize craftwork type activities (predominantly - woodworking). The HCI and CSCW literature has increasingly shown the importance of positive health outcomes associated with makerspace-type environments. This paper aims to study how men's shed members engage in making practices and what health benefits such a hyper-masculine maker culture brings to retired older men. Informed by the occupational wellbeing framework, we report on eight-month-long ethnographic fieldwork at an Australian men's shed. Our findings show that factors such as post-retirement support, materiality afforded by the space and social factors associated with the men's shed create a positive sense of experience among retired men. We situate our findings into the CSCW literature on making and maker cultures; and provide a nuanced view on how such a maker culture can be seen a site for positive health outcomes.