Situating makerspaces as an extension of post-industrial economies, and sites where technical communication and craftivism take place, this dissertation builds on critiques of makerspaces as hobbyist spaces that privilege digital electronics, populated mostly by white men. To do so, this dissertation analyzes who participates in feminist makerspaces, how “makers” describe their work and their experiences, and the roles of rhetoric and technical communication within feminist makerspaces. Building on prior studies of maker communities, this research follows a mixed methods approach and an iterative methodology, including online survey, site studies, interviews, and on-site automated survey to collect user data via kiosk. The online survey asked participants to describe makerspaces they’ve visited, their experiences visiting makerspaces, their work, and themselves. Follow-up interviews conducted with three survey participants addressed times participants felt unwelcome or out of place in a makerspace. Additionally, site studies consisted of visiting and observing two Midwestern makerspaces, both of which partnered with public libraries. This dissertation argues that makerspaces need to do a better job of welcoming guests and new members and actively hosting social events, rather than passively marketing workshops focused on specific technologies. Although people are becoming more familiar with makerspaces, regardless of gender and other aspects of identity, participants describe social anxieties about entering new spaces and unfamiliar communities as common barriers to entry, even before encountering issues based on gender, race, and other aspects of identity. If makerspaces (and “maker” communities more broadly) aim to be more inclusive and equitable, then actively welcoming people in general is a necessary baseline. As such, this dissertation draws from rhetorical theory to suggest ways that makerspaces can improve their hospitality and technical communication practices.

Esta dissertação investiga processos de democratização do exercício de projeto em design impulsionados por uma série de transformações sociais, tais como a expansão das tecnologias de comunicação e informação, a crise ambiental planetária e as crises econômicas globais. São analisados conceitos como os de \"sociedade pós-industrial\" conforme teorizado pelos sociólogos Alain Touraine (1969) e Domênico de Masi (2013) e \"terceira revolução industrial\", pelo economista Jeremy Rifkin (2011), propondo-se reflexões sobre qual seria o papel do design nesses contextos. A partir das concepções do campo do design propostas por Victor Papanek (1970) e Ezio Manzini (2015), e que examina o \"design quando todos são designers\", são estudados os fundamentos da cultura Faça-você-mesmo (DIY- Do-it-yourself), e da cultura Hacker, propondo-se, por fim, a configuração de um \"ecossistema\" dos processos de democratização do design contemporâneo, ou seja, de um conjunto de relações de interdependência destes processos entre si e com seu meio. / This dissertation investigates processes of democratization of the project exercise in a series of social transformations, such as information and communication technologies, the global environmental crisis and economies. We analyze concepts such as \"post-industrial society\" as theorized by sociologists Alain Touraine (1969) and Doménico de Masi (2013) and \"Third Industrial Revolution,\" by economist Jeremy Rifkin (2011), proposing reflections on the role of design in these contexts. From conceptions of the field of design proposed by Victor Papanek (1970) and Ezio Manzini (2015), and that examines \"design when everyone is a designer,\" the fundamentals of Do-it-yourself culture, and the Hacker culture, proposing order, the configuration of an \"ecosystem\" of the processes of democratization of design contemporary, that is, of a set of relations of interdependence of these processes between themselves and with their environment.

Tese de doutoramento - Faculdade de Educação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2008. A partir da realidade de uma escola pública, investiga-se a identidade do ensino médio brasileiro e especialmente sua histórica dualidade entre um sentido propedêutico ou profissionalizante, em busca de um novo caráter de efetiva conclusão da educação de base. Essa escola passa por rápida transição devido a uma nova situação escolar caracterizada por sua expansão, pelo seu novo público, pela crescente importância do conceito de adolescência e por outras mudanças sócio-econômicas e culturais ligadas à sociedade pós-industrial. Nesse contexto, faz-se uma reflexão acerca do processo ainda em curso de mudança de identidade do ensino médio, a partir de três elementos: o seu papel social, a sua relação com a adolescência e a sua relação com o saber. Investigam-se os saberes e fazeres pedagógicos de uma escola pública de ensino médio, considerada boa pela comunidade que a freqüenta, tendo como método a pesquisa qualitativa na escola, envolvendo as pessoas que nela convivem, com questionários respondidos pelos alunos, análises de documentos já produzidos sobre a escola, entrevistas e a própria vivência do pesquisador naquela realidade escolar. Os resultados apontam para o fato de os acertos educacionais dessa escola estarem relacionados com um começo de superação daquela dualidade rumo a uma maior proximidade com a perspectiva do jovem, em termos de novos conhecimentos trazidos para o currículo, que respondem a desafios e demandas da sociedade pós-industrial, assim como ao tratamento de aspectos afetivos da própria adolescência. Isso só se mostrou possível nessa escola por conta de um envolvimento pessoal e conceitual de um grupo de educadores, que teve com a escola uma participação mais comprometida e engajada para além dos “marcos estatutários". Isso aponta para a necessidade de o poder público acompanhar o cotidiano das escolas, para estimular e respeitar a constituição da identidade de cada universo escolar, na forma de políticas públicas que fomentem a emergência de projetos político-pedagógicos reais e singulares compatíveis com o entorno comunitários de cada escola. Entre as constatações do trabalho, ressalta-se a percepção da sobrecarga de demandas envolvendo cultura, esporte, saúde e vida comunitária, às quais a escola não pode atender. Propõe-se uma rede de instituições e equipamentos sociais que se somem na responsabilidade em educar o jovem, de maneira que, em seu conjunto, a escola recupere e exerça com qualidade o seu papel básico. / The reality of a particular public school is the starting point to question the identity of Brazilian high school with focus on a historical duality between a pre university school and a professional school, in the search for its new meaning towards an effective conclusion of basic education. This school lives today a quick transformation, due to its expansion, its new public, the growing importance of the concept of adolescence, as well as the social, economic and cultural changes connected to post-industrial society. In this context, we propose a reflection about the process of change of identity in terms of three elements: its social function, its relations with adolescence and with knowledge. A public high school considered good by its community had its educational practices investigated with this purpose, with basis on a qualitative research, involving people that teaches and learns there, making use of questionnaires answered by students, documental analysis, interviews and the personal experiences of the researcher himself in his work at that school. The results indicate that the good achievements of that high school are related to a movement in the direction of overcoming of that duality towards a closer relationship to the youth perspectives. This is connected to educational contents in the school curriculum that answer challenges put by the post industrial society and to emotional questions of adolescence itself. These achievements were only possible due to a personal engagement of a group of educators, much beyond of could be formally expected. As far as public policies are concerned, this suggests that the government should promote and support effective and singular pedagogical projects that respond to the social environment of each school. Among the conclusions of this work there is a perception that the school is requested to answer to many questions related to health, culture, sports, and communitarian life, that are beyond its domains. Therefore, we propose that a net of institutions and social facilities should cooperate, in order to allow the school to dedicate itself primarily to its main role.

Esta dissertação investiga processos de democratização do exercício de projeto em design impulsionados por uma série de transformações sociais, tais como a expansão das tecnologias de comunicação e informação, a crise ambiental planetária e as crises econômicas globais. São analisados conceitos como os de \"sociedade pós-industrial\" conforme teorizado pelos sociólogos Alain Touraine (1969) e Domênico de Masi (2013) e \"terceira revolução industrial\", pelo economista Jeremy Rifkin (2011), propondo-se reflexões sobre qual seria o papel do design nesses contextos. A partir das concepções do campo do design propostas por Victor Papanek (1970) e Ezio Manzini (2015), e que examina o \"design quando todos são designers\", são estudados os fundamentos da cultura Faça-você-mesmo (DIY- Do-it-yourself), e da cultura Hacker, propondo-se, por fim, a configuração de um \"ecossistema\" dos processos de democratização do design contemporâneo, ou seja, de um conjunto de relações de interdependência destes processos entre si e com seu meio. / This dissertation investigates processes of democratization of the project exercise in a series of social transformations, such as information and communication technologies, the global environmental crisis and economies. We analyze concepts such as \"post-industrial society\" as theorized by sociologists Alain Touraine (1969) and Doménico de Masi (2013) and \"Third Industrial Revolution,\" by economist Jeremy Rifkin (2011), proposing reflections on the role of design in these contexts. From conceptions of the field of design proposed by Victor Papanek (1970) and Ezio Manzini (2015), and that examines \"design when everyone is a designer,\" the fundamentals of Do-it-yourself culture, and the Hacker culture, proposing order, the configuration of an \"ecosystem\" of the processes of democratization of design contemporary, that is, of a set of relations of interdependence of these processes between themselves and with their environment.

This thesis is about the act of inhabiting the post-industrial landscape: about how a city with the remains of and scars from a previous era can begin to repurpose those remnants--both in a physical, as well as intangible sense. Proposing an alternative to the patterns of development that created such a landscape, it offers resistance to the entrenched values of privatization, commodification, and consumption. The chosen site--an abandoned grain elevator in Buffalo, New York--sits at a nexus of converging landscapes: the grid of downtown to the north, a former industrial canal to the east, a stretch of barren waterfront land to the south, and the expansive Lake Erie to the west. This site, existing at the mouth of the now contaminated Buffalo River, possesses both beauty and sublimity in its deterioration; as such, it is uniquely situated to become a charged point of entry to the desolate waterfront beyond, as well as a bridge--literally and figuratively--between the city, its heritage, and its legacy. Drawing on such precedents as the library and the enlightenment-era salon as traditional places of scholarship and colloquy, the project is also influenced by the archetypes of the tavern and the union hall as more informal, although no less vital, places of cultural exchange. It is the aim of this thesis to bring the residents of Buffalo together in a public platform that would impress and bring into focus the processes that created the current conditions, allow for the meaningful re-inhabitation of this landscape, as well as foster a sense of community, dialogue, exchange, learning, and inquiry, with the desired outcome of participatory change.

A map is a context. This project is about contextualization. This process has helped me understand where landscape architecture currently sits as a discipline and offers hints as to where it might go in the future. The function of this mapping is as much about re-shaping an understanding of landscape architecture as it is about understanding landscape urbanism. Like architecture and city planning, landscape architecture is a discipline in constant flux, redefining its role with and relationship to parallel fields of thought and within broader disciplinary contexts. Over the last few decades it has become apparent that landscape architecture has emerged as a discipline strongly capable of reshaping urban space. Ideas regarding landscapes as active, dynamic, operational systems have paralleled the discipline’s growing relevance within an urban context. In this time landscape urbanism has emerged as a reaction to landscape architecture’s role within our changing world. For landscape urbanism to contribute anything of value to the future of urbanism, or to the design disciplines, it needs to be contextualized within the larger framework of which it is part, without this context landscape urbanism has no relevance. Where it has come from must be critically assessed as a way to understand its intentions and potential future. Landscape urbanism may expand architecture’s boundaries to include elements of landscape thinking, but it does not expand the boundaries of landscape design. Its attempt to generate a new approach for urbanism is innovative as architecture, in its effort to expand the discipline’s understanding of site, but as a design discipline, or a strategic approach to thinking, landscape urbanism is not innovative.

A map is a context. This project is about contextualization. This process has helped me understand where landscape architecture currently sits as a discipline and offers hints as to where it might go in the future. The function of this mapping is as much about re-shaping an understanding of landscape architecture as it is about understanding landscape urbanism. Like architecture and city planning, landscape architecture is a discipline in constant flux, redefining its role with and relationship to parallel fields of thought and within broader disciplinary contexts. Over the last few decades it has become apparent that landscape architecture has emerged as a discipline strongly capable of reshaping urban space. Ideas regarding landscapes as active, dynamic, operational systems have paralleled the discipline’s growing relevance within an urban context. In this time landscape urbanism has emerged as a reaction to landscape architecture’s role within our changing world. For landscape urbanism to contribute anything of value to the future of urbanism, or to the design disciplines, it needs to be contextualized within the larger framework of which it is part, without this context landscape urbanism has no relevance. Where it has come from must be critically assessed as a way to understand its intentions and potential future. Landscape urbanism may expand architecture’s boundaries to include elements of landscape thinking, but it does not expand the boundaries of landscape design. Its attempt to generate a new approach for urbanism is innovative as architecture, in its effort to expand the discipline’s understanding of site, but as a design discipline, or a strategic approach to thinking, landscape urbanism is not innovative.

Tese de doutoramento - Faculdade de Educação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2008. A partir da realidade de uma escola pública, investiga-se a identidade do ensino médio brasileiro e especialmente sua histórica dualidade entre um sentido propedêutico ou profissionalizante, em busca de um novo caráter de efetiva conclusão da educação de base. Essa escola passa por rápida transição devido a uma nova situação escolar caracterizada por sua expansão, pelo seu novo público, pela crescente importância do conceito de adolescência e por outras mudanças sócio-econômicas e culturais ligadas à sociedade pós-industrial. Nesse contexto, faz-se uma reflexão acerca do processo ainda em curso de mudança de identidade do ensino médio, a partir de três elementos: o seu papel social, a sua relação com a adolescência e a sua relação com o saber. Investigam-se os saberes e fazeres pedagógicos de uma escola pública de ensino médio, considerada boa pela comunidade que a freqüenta, tendo como método a pesquisa qualitativa na escola, envolvendo as pessoas que nela convivem, com questionários respondidos pelos alunos, análises de documentos já produzidos sobre a escola, entrevistas e a própria vivência do pesquisador naquela realidade escolar. Os resultados apontam para o fato de os acertos educacionais dessa escola estarem relacionados com um começo de superação daquela dualidade rumo a uma maior proximidade com a perspectiva do jovem, em termos de novos conhecimentos trazidos para o currículo, que respondem a desafios e demandas da sociedade pós-industrial, assim como ao tratamento de aspectos afetivos da própria adolescência. Isso só se mostrou possível nessa escola por conta de um envolvimento pessoal e conceitual de um grupo de educadores, que teve com a escola uma participação mais comprometida e engajada para além dos “marcos estatutários”. Isso aponta para a necessidade de o poder público acompanhar o cotidiano das escolas, para estimular e respeitar a constituição da identidade de cada universo escolar, na forma de políticas públicas que fomentem a emergência de projetos político-pedagógicos reais e singulares compatíveis com o entorno comunitários de cada escola. Entre as constatações do trabalho, ressalta-se a percepção da sobrecarga de demandas envolvendo cultura, esporte, saúde e vida comunitária, às quais a escola não pode atender. Propõe-se uma rede de instituições e equipamentos sociais que se somem na responsabilidade em educar o jovem, de maneira que, em seu conjunto, a escola recupere e exerça com qualidade o seu papel básico. / The reality of a particular public school is the starting point to question the identity of Brazilian high school with focus on a historical duality between a pre university school and a professional school, in the search for its new meaning towards an effective conclusion of basic education. This school lives today a quick transformation, due to its expansion, its new public, the growing importance of the concept of adolescence, as well as the social, economic and cultural changes connected to post-industrial society. In this context, we propose a reflection about the process of change of identity in terms of three elements: its social function, its relations with adolescence and with knowledge. A public high school considered good by its community had its educational practices investigated with this purpose, with basis on a qualitative research, involving people that teaches and learns there, making use of questionnaires answered by students, documental analysis, interviews and the personal experiences of the researcher himself in his work at that school. The results indicate that the good achievements of that high school are related to a movement in the direction of overcoming of that duality towards a closer relationship to the youth perspectives. This is connected to educational contents in the school curriculum that answer challenges put by the post industrial society and to emotional questions of adolescence itself. These achievements were only possible due to a personal engagement of a group of educators, much beyond of could be formally expected. As far as public policies are concerned, this suggests that the government should promote and support effective and singular pedagogical projects that respond to the social environment of each school. Among the conclusions of this work there is a perception that the school is requested to answer to many questions related to health, culture, sports, and communitarian life, that are beyond its domains. Therefore, we propose that a net of institutions and social facilities should cooperate, in order to allow the school to dedicate itself primarily to its main role.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the legacy of industrial spaces, the effect of this legacy on the surroundings, and how these spaces then become disconnected and isolated after industrial activity is decommissioned. The research forms part of an NRF research scheme that specifically focuses on building the resilience of cities through innovation in the planning, design and construction of the built environment. The hypothesis on which the dissertation is based states that a process of reintegration of a decommissioned industrial site with the immediate surroundings would enable such a site to become a positive space of transition, and would allow for the reconciliation of society and the ecology that was exploited by the industry. It sees the decommissioning of industrial infrastructure not as a loss or abandonment of obsolete capital, but as the release of energy and potential that can be positively reconstructed. The mechanistic and reductionist world-view that contributed to an unhealthy relationship between people and their ecological surroundings is theoretically explored through the hybridization theories proposed by Bruno Latour (Latour 1993), and the regenerative methodologies put forth by members of Regenesis (Mang, Reed 2012a). The potential of obsolete industrial infrastructure to provide powerful leverage points for changing paradigms from mechanistic to ecological is discussed in the light of its history of developing from craft to large-scale production. Craft becomes an important mechanism for the integration of people with the value and purpose of their work, and also of natural materials and the cultural objects they become. The theories stated above are architecturally applied to an industrial site in Eersterust, Pretoria, which is on the verge of being decommissioned. The site is approached as a constantly evolving and living entity. It is investigated in terms of its patterns and cycles, and these are illustrated as a narrative of all the forces that have impacted on it over millions of years. The narrative provides clues as to possible programmes and site lifecycles, and enables those phenomena that will nurture the biophysical evolution of the site to be given form. The concept of potential sets arises from this investigation, and informs an architecture that aligns itself with both the ecological and cultural forces on site, and represents the hybridization of the two. Potential sets distinguish patterns of ecological, social and industrial phenomena that occur on site over different time frames. These patterns aid the understanding of the ecological purpose of the site and the alignment of the built intervention with this purpose. A building is imagined that will create solutions for public, industrial and ecological spaces, with different levels of engagement between the three. The concept of a solvent enforces the notion of hybridity and allows for new relationships between the public, industrial processes and natural cycles to develop. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

The continuing industrialisation of global society, specifically in developing countries, has resulted in the ongoing extraction of the earth's resources to feed the ever increasing demand for economic growth. What will happen when resources become scarce and unobtainable? What will happen when population growth becomes unmanageable? What will happen when the quality of life becomes displaced by the quantity thereof? The effects of such exploitation are already evident, and the longer solutions toward growing global populations and diminishing natural resources are postponed, the bleaker the future for modern human civilisation becomes. Many tipping points are being approached; some have already been passed. Now is the time to innovate and to find alternatives, as ways to redefine the relationships between people and resources. This dissertation is an investigation of a post-industrial artefact, an obsolete clay brick quarry and brickworks amidst the suburbs on the southern edge of Pretoria. It has undergone constant changes over the last century and quite noticeably during the last decade, as it lies latent in its obsolescence. The effects of time can be observed in the natural processes of decay, entropy and change, as well as in human development and growth. The history imprinted onto the site tells us about the dynamic patterns and relationships between man and his natural environment, seen in this now Post-Industrial Latent Artefact (P.I.L.A.), and hints toward a path for its future. The principles of Regenerative Design are employed to assist in finding and utilising potential within the P.I.L.A. A new life for the site is found by accessing its inherent potential, while the importance of Industrial Heritage is acknowledged. The programme, as latent potential, is generated through the uncovering of the site's patent potentials, in response to global resource concerns and urban resilience. The architectural design is generated through the conceptual basis of exchanges between knowledge, heritage, the social, the bio-physical, the programmatic, and the tectonic. A social spine is intersected and paralleled by areas of new production, in contrast with areas of historical production, which are all supported by an enhanced ecology and tied together into a new synthetic landscape. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted