Making sense of ‘maker’: Work, identity, and affect in the maker movement

Abstract

This paper investigates the affective dimensions of entrepreneurial and creative work with the goal of making sense of the emergent collective identity of ‘maker.’ Relying on qualitative research in Detroit, MI, and Portland, OR, with small, entrepreneurial craft producers affiliated with the ‘maker movement,’ I forward two broad suppositions. First, as a work-related identity, ‘maker’ is emergent from a collective frustration with globalization and corporate/professional work. From the perspective of affective labor, the suggestion is that this negative association with globalized forms of work might be productive of a politically oppositional subjectivity. Second, as an identity term ‘maker’ is vague and oftentimes rejected by the people it ostensibly describes, and as such, the politics of ‘maker’ are not oriented toward collective political action. Why does ‘maker’ appear coherent as a response to globalization and corporate culture, but incoherent as a form of solidarity or collective identity? The paper utilizes affect theory to make sense of this contradiction, finding that the ambiguity and negation of ‘maker’ help shape a non-rigid form of belonging that allows makers to express various dissatisfactions (e.g. of globalization) while maintaining feelings of autonomy and avoiding overtly political positions. Lastly, I contend that ‘making’ is an adjustment to the turbulence of capitalism rather than a confrontation against it and is best understood in terms of the sense of mooring and purpose it provides for those within its milieu.