RECENT NSF AWARDS

Regional Experiments for the Future of Work in America(2019-2024)

PI: Silvia Lindtner
Co-PIs: Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, Tawanna Dillahunt

Urban centers in rural regions of the American Midwest have begun experiment with a new wave of computer-based economic development tackling complex challenges for the future of work in the 21st century. Smart zones, smart cities, opportunity zones, tech entrepreneurship and data science initiatives have sprung up in these regions. The goal of these initiatives is to build a "regional advantage" for the American Midwest, i.e. prototyping novel approaches in computing in order to broaden citizen participation in regional economic development. Prior research shows that while such experimentation can help mobilize people in times of heightened uncertainty and create actionability, there is also a risk that they disadvantage large populations and exacerbate existing class divides.

This research project examines both the challenges and opportunities of such regional experimentation and conduct sociotechnical interventions with community stakeholders to advance their commitments to broaden participation. Our particular focus is on a new line of regional experiments with computer-based economic development in the American Midwest, rooted in collaborations between government, industry, and universities to drive their traditions of manufacturing excellence into the next generation. Michigan and Indiana constitute unique regions to study such regional experiments as they leverage infrastructures of production to reclaim what they have lost: their position as cutting-edge production hubs. Drawing from the PI's long-term experience conducting such regional and multi-site engagements, the project will include in-depth ethnographic research and stakeholder-driven engagements with the following two groups: 1) those who are at the forefront of conceiving, designing and implementing techno-urban experiments of fab cities, IoT cities, and smart zones and 2) underserved and excluded populations, i.e. those who might be most immediately affected by these techno-urban experiments in terms of implications for their immediate work but have little recourse of action.

"Innovation and TEchnology Entrepreneurship Cultures between Ghana, South China, and Silicon Valley" (2017-2022)

PI: Silvia Lindtner, Co-PI: Seyram Avle

In recent years, Chinese technology design, production models and distribution chains have made their way into the technology market across sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, various kinds of Chinese-made information technology devices sit next to Silicon Valley-made ones, while local technologists develop software to function on both kinds. Tech startups test out apps on high-end phones like the iPhone and Huawei, midrange types like Tecno, and no-name/no-brand devices. In marketplaces, traders have become adept repairers of a wide range of low to mid tech/cost devices imported from Shenzhen, a manufacturing city in southern China. In Shenzhen, several hardware companies now design exclusively for the African market. All the while, Silicon Valley companies are scouting for startups to acquire across these regions. In both the high-end spaces of technology production and in the street-side low-tech stalls, technology entrepreneurs combine a range of tech skills and business acumen across borders to design, acquire, modify and distribute information technologies. All of these developments speak to a larger and currently unfolding transformation of where and how technology design and innovation takes place. The proposed research will investigate contemporary social and technological processes that connect in new ways across Accra (Ghana), Shenzhen (China), and Silicon Valley (USA). The underlying goal is to identify how circulating concepts in tech entrepreneurship and innovation like start-up culture, design thinking, and Internet of Things shape both local strategies and transnational relations of technology production.

"FROM HOBBY TO SOCIOECONOMIC DRIVER: INNOVATION PATHWAYS TO PROFESSIONAL MAKING IN ASIA AND THE AMERICAN MIDWEST" (2015-2022)

PI: Silvia Lindtner and Co-PIs: Jeff Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell.

“Making” has been widely envisioned to enable a transition from tinkering to prototyping and entrepreneurship and, finally, to help revive industrial production across regions. Through empirical research, hands-on design workshops and international comparison, this project will examine and document successful pathways from making as hobby to socioeconomic driver, and how they are supported by technological, policy, economic, and pedagogical infrastructures. Broadly, this research will provide a contribution to studies of technology innovation in regions beyond more familiar technology hubs like Silicon Valley: Asia and the American Midwest. It will contribute to discussions that place models of technology innovation and design in relationship to local histories, cultures, and sociopolitical contexts. This includes debates around non-linear stories of technological progress, creativity, and design. This research will also contribute to a growing body of research focused on investigating the tools, techniques, and social organization of maker collectives, hackerspaces, and repair practices by providing both an ethnographic foundation and technological insights for emerging issues concerning making’s transition into production and entrepreneurialism.