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research article

Innovators in Urban China: Makerspaces and Marginality with Impact

Bolli, Monique  
October 14, 2020
Urban Planning

In China, the emergence of makerspaces, hackerspaces, Fab Labs, and innovation labs reflects top-down and bottom-up dynamics. The grassroots movements and governmental efforts promoting innovation and creativity are part of the maker trend linked to the rise of the Internet and access to digital tools. The urban imaginary of the maker culture creates networks and events both globally and locally. The first makerspaces opened in Shanghai and Shenzhen in 2010 and attracted the attention of the government, which published an initiative in 2015 that influenced the typology of makerspaces in China. The ephemeral spaces for innovators, hackers, makers, and entrepreneurs shaped by this cultural context and local ecosystem are urban phenomena investigated with social anthropological and experimental methodologies to better understand the extension and platformisation of these autonomous and co-opted communities and narratives. This research fills the knowledge gap on makerspaces in China in recent years, showing the impact of governmental initiatives on a grassroots culture, the possible roles of makers, and the complexity and unlimitedness of the maker culture through international partnerships for projects such as Designed in Ethiopia and Kabakoo Academies.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.17645/up.v5i4.3218
Author(s)
Bolli, Monique  
Date Issued

2020-10-14

Published in
Urban Planning
Volume

5

Issue

4

Start page

68

End page

77

Subjects

Africa

•

change-makers

•

changing narratives

•

China

•

empowerment

•

innovation

•

makerspaces

Note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License grpcv

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
IAGS-GE  
SCI-CDH-FGB  
Available on Infoscience
October 23, 2020
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/172701
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