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When open source design is vital: critical making of DIY healthcare equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 07:30 authored by Annika Richterich
Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical devices needed during the COVID-19 pandemic were widely reported in early 2020. In response, civic DIY volunteers explored how they could produce the required equipment. Members of communities such as hacker- and makerspaces employed their skills and tools to manufacture, for example, face shields and masks. The article discusses these civic innovation practices and their broader social implications by relating them to critical making theory. Methodologically, it is based on a digital ethnography approach, focusing on hacker and maker communities in the UK. Communities’ DIY initiatives display characteristics of critical making and ‘craftivism’, as they assessed and counteracted politicised healthcare supply shortages. It is argued that their manufacturing activities during the COVID pandemic relate to UK austerity politics’ effects on healthcare and government failure to ensure medical crisis supplies. Facilitated by open source design, communities’ innovation enabled healthcare emergency equipment. At the same time, their DIY manufacturing raises practical as well as ethical issues concerning, among other things, efficacy and safety of use.

Funding

HACKIT - Hacking your way to IT expertise: What digital societies can (and need to) learn from informal learning in hackerspaces; G2721; EUROPEAN UNION; 790777

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Health Sociology Review

ISSN

1446-1242

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

2

Volume

29

Page range

158-167

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2020-07-13

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-07-13

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2020-07-10

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