IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/loceco/v36y2021i3p205-223.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Manufacturing space for inclusive innovation? A study of makerspaces in southern Ontario

Author

Listed:
  • Tara Vinodrai

    (University of Toronto, Canada)

  • Brenton Nader
  • Christian Zavarella

Abstract

The popular discourse on making and makerspaces is laden with optimistic narratives suggesting that makerspaces act as key institutions that support more inclusive and sustainable forms of local economic development. Despite their popularity, we know little about how makerspaces actually support entrepreneurship and innovation and even less about how they advance the goals of environmental sustainability and social inclusion, particularly in the Canadian context. In an effort to redress these gaps, this paper uses a unique database of makerspaces, complemented with findings from in-depth case studies, to examine the practices of makerspaces in southern Ontario (Canada). Our study finds that while makerspaces offer access to technologies and basic skills training, we find limited evidence that makerspaces generate the promised economic or social outcomes so often attributed to them. Moreover, we find very limited evidence that makerspaces actively seek to be socially inclusive in their membership and programming or encourage environmentally sustainable practices. In other words, the potential of makerspaces, in their current form, to contribute to more inclusive and sustainable forms of local economic and community development is not yet fully realized.

Suggested Citation

  • Tara Vinodrai & Brenton Nader & Christian Zavarella, 2021. "Manufacturing space for inclusive innovation? A study of makerspaces in southern Ontario," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(3), pages 205-223, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:205-223
    DOI: 10.1177/02690942211013532
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02690942211013532
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/02690942211013532?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer Clark, 2014. "Manufacturing by design: the rise of regional intermediaries and the re-emergence of collective action," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 7(3), pages 433-448.
    2. Greg Schrock & Laura Wolf-Powers, 2019. "Opportunities and risks of localised industrial policy: the case of “maker-entrepreneurial ecosystems” in the USA," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 12(3), pages 369-384.
    3. Laura Wolf-Powers & Marc Doussard & Greg Schrock & Charles Heying & Max Eisenburger & Stephen Marotta, 2017. "The Maker Movement and Urban Economic Development," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 83(4), pages 365-376, October.
    4. Troxler, Peter & Wolf, Patricia, 2017. "Digital maker-entrepreneurs in open design: What activities make up their business model?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 807-817.
    5. Dale Dougherty, 2012. "The Maker Movement," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 7(3), pages 11-14, July.
    6. Max Eisenburger & Marc Doussard & Laura Wolf-Powers & Greg Schrock & Stephen Marotta, 2019. "Industrial inheritances: Makers, relatedness and materiality in New York and Chicago," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 1625-1635, November.
    7. Nichola Lowe & Tara Vinodrai, 2020. "The Maker-Manufacturing Nexus as a Place-Connecting Strategy: Implications for Regions Left Behind," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 96(4), pages 315-335, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marc Doussard & Jennifer Clark, 2021. "Inclusive innovation closing essay: Problems beyond economic development," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(3), pages 265-270, May.
    2. Greg Schrock & Nichola Lowe, 2021. "Inclusive innovation editorial: The promise of inclusive innovation," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(3), pages 181-186, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Greg Schrock & Marc Doussard & Laura Wolf-Powers & Stephen Marotta & Max Eisenburger, 2019. "Appetite for Growth: Challenges to Scale for Food and Beverage Makers in Three U.S. Cities," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(1), pages 39-50, February.
    2. Declan Martin & Carl Grodach, 2023. "RESILIENCE AND ADAPTATION IN GENTRIFYING URBAN INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS: The Experience of Cultural Manufacturers in San Francisco and Melbourne," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 625-644, July.
    3. Steve Marotta, 2021. "Making sense of ‘maker’: Work, identity, and affect in the maker movement," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(4), pages 638-654, June.
    4. Stefania Fiorentino, 2019. "The Maker Faire of Rome as a window of observation on the new perspectives for local economic development and the new urban entrepreneurial ecosystems," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(4), pages 364-381, June.
    5. Tabarés, Raúl & Kuittinen, Hanna, 2020. "A tale of two innovation cultures: Bridging the gap between makers and manufacturers," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    6. Tanya Tsui & David Peck & Bob Geldermans & Arjan van Timmeren, 2020. "The Role of Urban Manufacturing for a Circular Economy in Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Bergman, Brian J. & McMullen, Jeffery S., 2020. "Entrepreneurs in the making: Six decisions for fostering entrepreneurship through maker spaces," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 811-824.
    8. Vladimiras Dolgopolovas & Valentina Dagiene, 2021. "On the Future of Computational Thinking Education: Moving beyond the Digital Agenda, a Discourse Analysis Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-21, December.
    9. Nagao, Kenkichi & Edgington, David W., 2023. "Local industrial displacement, zoning conflicts and monozukuri planning in Higashi Osaka, Japan," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    10. Umair Baig & Batool Muhammad Hussain & Ieva Meidute-Kavaliauskiene & Sigitas Davidavicius, 2022. "Digital Entrepreneurship: Future Research Directions and Opportunities for New Business Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-16, April.
    11. Bressanelli, Gianmarco & Visintin, Filippo & Saccani, Nicola, 2022. "Circular Economy and the evolution of industrial districts: a supply chain perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    12. Troxler, Peter & Wolf, Patricia, 2017. "Digital maker-entrepreneurs in open design: What activities make up their business model?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 807-817.
    13. Vladimiras Dolgopolovas & Valentina Dagiene, 2022. "On Semiotics Perspectives of Computational Thinking: Unravelling the “Pamphlet” Approach, a Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, February.
    14. Wolf, Patricia & Klotz, Ute & Gaudenz, Urs, 2020. "Mitbestimmung von Mitarbeitenden aus DIY-Communities," Study / edition der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf, volume 127, number 438.
    15. Nichola Lowe & Greg Schrock & Ranita Jain & Maureen Conway, 2021. "Genesis at work: Advancing inclusive innovation through manufacturing extension," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(3), pages 224-241, May.
    16. María Jesús Ávila-Gutiérrez & Alejandro Martín-Gómez & Francisco Aguayo-González & Juan Ramón Lama-Ruiz, 2020. "Eco-Holonic 4.0 Circular Business Model to Conceptualize Sustainable Value Chain towards Digital Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-32, March.
    17. Langley, David J. & Zirngiebl, Marthe & Sbeih, Janosch & Devoldere, Bart, 2017. "Trajectories to reconcile sharing and commercialization in the maker movement," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 783-794.
    18. J. M. Pearce, 2016. "Return on investment for open source scientific hardware development," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 192-195.
    19. Jason S. Spicer, 2020. "Worker and Community Ownership as an Economic Development Strategy: Innovative Rebirth or Tired Retread of a Failed Idea?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(4), pages 325-342, November.
    20. Laurent Dupont & Alex Gabriel & Mauricio Camargo & Claudine Guidat, 2017. "Collaborative Innovation Projects Engaging open communities: a Case Study on Emerging Challenges," Post-Print hal-01582548, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:205-223. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/index.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.