Brief and selective Book Summary: The Maker Movement Manifesto Mark Hatch CEO TECHSHOP McGraw-Hill Education 2014
Note: the words inside [ ] are my characterisations of what Hatch is saying, very much influenced by David Gauntlett’s book Making is Connecting and my own experience
Hatch’s definition of Makerspace:
Centre or workspace where like-minded people get together to make things. Some Makerspace members are designers, writers, practitioners of medicine or law, architects, and other white collar types who come in and start making things for themselves, their families and friends. They spend time in makerspaces because they just love to make things. They don’t need to make Christmas presents they want to.
[However, from reading the book the people who come into maker spaces is much broader than this description highlights.]
Hatch goes on to capture the fundamentals of the maker movement.
- Making and sharing what you have made are deeply connected.
- People in makerspaces can’t tell you everything but they can tell you something – [we are all have a piece of the ‘the knowledge’.]
- Making produces something tangible [the product has a potential to make connections to others]
- A big aspect of maker space culture is the sharing of knowledge and skills. [This is something now much diminished, a sense of belonging to ‘the commons’. i.e. cultural and natural resources shared the a society/community.]
- Hatch highlights the importance of giving, giving what you have made to another person. ‘…like giving something of yourself.
- Making brings about a natural interest in learning.
- Access to tools.
- The importance of ‘play’
- Participation – which takes many forms.
- The centrality of support for the movement – emotional, intellectual, financial, political, and institutional support.
- Maker journey’s will bring about change, which needs to be embraced. This is a process of self-discovery and development.
29.06.25
In progress…
MakerSpace Witney 