Open Codes: Skills, Participation and Democracy in New Technology Development

From a general perspective, as well as in scientific practice, technology and society are viewed as two distinct entities. Related to this view are the assumption that technology and human experience are quite different and unconnected and the idea that modernity has uprooted, de-contextualised, and disembodied technical rationality. Adopting a contrary approach, this book represents a theoretical exploration to show that, in the domain of technological development, there are significant margins for manoeuvre in which to recuperate and valorise human and social action, in order to envisage a better democratisation of technology. Primary focus is placed on open source, as potentially paving the way to a new participatory model of technology. This model makes so-called ‘technical code’ an open entity in which it is possible to realise creative processes, including those of re-appropriation designed to re-invent used technologies.