The hybrid gathering of maker communities in Taipei makerspaces: An alternative worlding practice

Abstract

Abstract The maker movement, as a global subcultural diffusion, has taken root in East Asian cities. A series of urban strategies have been implemented to formalize a worlding city practice through imagining makerspaces as the hub of urban economic development. However, the fluidity and territorialization of maker communities are central to facilitate the emergence of makerspaces as a grassroots-oriented worlding practice, but this issue remains relatively unexplored. This paper contributes to exploring the bottom-up dimension of worlding city practices by analysing the socio-spatial strategies of the maker community in Taipei makerspaces. Using a context-specific natural inquiry method, qualitative data were collected from eleven in-depth, semi-structured interviews and field observations conducted at Taipei makerspaces. By emphasizing the tension between the state and maker communities, this paper argues that Taipei makerspaces constitute an experimentation zone in which a maker community enacts interconnectedness, multiplicity and fluidity practices through socio-spatial strategies in multiple spaces. Meanwhile, maker communities’ worlding practices encourage downscaling strategies that obviously conflict with state-led upscaling strategies. Attention to the unruly nature of makerspaces manifests the hidden tensions between state interventions and maker communities in Taipei.