Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:55:36.473Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - ‘So Many Cool Things to Do!’

Hacker Ethics and Work Practices

from Part I - Experiencing at Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2020

By
Mickael Peiro
Edited by
Jeremy Aroles ,
François-Xavier de Vaujany  and
Karen Dale
Jeremy Aroles
Affiliation:
Durham University
François-Xavier de Vaujany
Affiliation:
Université Paris-Dauphine
Karen Dale
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Get access

Summary

This chapter highlights the daily activities of the hackers grouped together in the same place, making it possible to experience new form of organisation and order social relations. Thus, the analysis of the relationships between the means and ends of organisation suggests that, far from being confined to individual values and attitudes, the pleasure and power given to ‘doing’ represent organisational principles within hackerspace. The study proposed in this chapter is based on an ethnographic study of/within a hackerspace based in the south of France. The fieldwork combines direct participation with a long-term presence in the community, years of archived exchanges and interviews with all the hackers involved in the initiative. It highlights the structuring of the alternative project and hackers organisation according to their ethics. The hacker ethic is reflected in the organisational tasks and the constitution of a legitimate order ; not linked to rational, charismatic or traditional motives, but to a real power given to the ‘doing’: the do-it-ocracy.

Keywords

Hackershackerspaceethnographydoingfun
Type
Chapter
Information
Experiencing the New World of Work , pp. 62 - 83
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baichtal, J. 2011. Hack This: 24 Incredible Hackerspace Projects from the DIY Movement. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders.Google Scholar
Chandler, A. 1996. The changing definition and image of hackers in popular discourse. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 2(24): 229–251.Google Scholar
Coleman, G. 2016. Anonymous: Hacker, activiste, faussaire, mouchard, lanceur d’alerte. Montreal: Lux Editeur.Google Scholar
Dagiral, É. 2008. Pirates, hackers, hacktivistes: Déplacements et dilution de la frontière électronique. Critique, 6: 480–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giffard, A. 2007. (Sur) Un Manifeste Hacker. Cahier Critique de Poésie, 2(14).Google Scholar
Gunkel, D. J. 2001. Hacking Cyberspace. Boulder, CO: Perseus.Google Scholar
Hafner, K. & Markoff, J. 1995. Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, Revised. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Halbert, D. 1997. Discourses of danger and the computer hacker. The Information Society, 13(4): 361–374.Google Scholar
Hannemyr, G. 1999. Technology and pleasure: Considering hacking constructive. First Monday, 4(2).Google Scholar
Hollinger, R. C. & Lanza‐Kaduce, L. 1988. The process of criminalization: The case of computer crime laws. Criminology, 26(1): 101–126.Google Scholar
Lallement, M. 2015. L'Âge du Faire. Hacking, travail, anarchie. Paris: Le Seuil.Google Scholar
Levy, S. 1984. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday.Google Scholar
Lofland, J. 1974. Styles of reporting qualitative field research. The American Sociologist, 9(3): 101–111.Google Scholar
Mbodj-Pouye, A. 2008. Pages choisies. Ethnographie du cahier personnel d’un agriculteur malien. Sociologie et Sociétés, 40(2): 87–108.Google Scholar
Millar, S. 2001. For Hackers, Read Political Heroes of Cyberspace! The Guardian (8 March, p. 4).Google Scholar
Moilanen, J. 2012. Emerging hackerspaces–peer-production generation. In IFIP International Conference on Open Source Systems (pp. 94–111). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nissenbaum, H. 2004. Hackers and the contested ontology of cyberspace. New Media & Society, 6(2): 195–217.Google Scholar
Pekka, H. 2001. L’Éthique hacker et l’esprit de l’ère de l’information. Paris: Exils.Google Scholar
Raymond, E. S. (ed.). 1996. The New Hacker's Dictionary. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Starr, A. 2000. Naming the Enemy: Anti-corporate Social Movements Confront Globalization. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. A. 1998. Hackers: cyberpunks or microserfs? Information Communication & Society, 1(4), 401–419.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. A. 1999. Hackers: Crime and the Digital Sublime. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. A. 2005. From hackers to hacktivists: Speed bumps on the global superhighway? New Media & Society, 7(5): 625–646.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, J. 1979. The fact of fiction in organizational ethnography. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24(4): 539–550.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, J. 2011. Ethnography as work: Some rules of engagement. Journal of Management Studies, 48(1): 218–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, L. 2005. Carnal connections: On embodiment, apprenticeship, and membership. Qualitative Sociology, 28(4): 445–474.Google Scholar
Wark, M. 2006. Un Manifeste Hacker: a Hacker Manifesto Francophone Dans un Design de Gallien Guibert. Paris: Criticalsecret.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×