Master thesis in Sustainable Development 2019/46 Examensarbete i Hållbar utveckling Creating democratic technology for societal change: How Open Source practices can influence the negotiation of technology among activists. Lucas Langholf DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES INSTITUTIONEN FÖR GEOVETENSKAPER Master thesis in Sustainable Development 2019/46 Examensarbete i Hållbar utveckling Creating democratic technology for societal change: How Open Source practices can influence the negotiation of technology among activists. Lucas Langholf Supervisor: Julia Velkova Subject Reviewer: Anne Kaun Copyright © Lucas Langholf and the Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University Published at Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University (www.geo.uu.se), Uppsala, 2019 Content 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Sustainable Transformation and Technology ........................................................................................... 1 1.2 Activism and Open Source Practices ....................................................................................................... 2 1.3 The global plastic pollution and the case of Precious Plastic ................................................................... 2 1.4 Aim and Research Question ..................................................................................................................... 3 2. Background ................................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Open Source and Free Software ............................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Activism ................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Open Source and Activism ....................................................................................................................... 6 3. Methodology .................................................................................................................................................. 7 3.1 Research design ........................................................................................................................................ 7 3.2 Qualitative Text Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 8 3.3 Choice of Precious Plastic as a case ......................................................................................................... 9 3.4 Limitations ............................................................................................................................................... 9 4. Theoretical Background ............................................................................................................................. 10 4.1 Critical Theory of Technology ............................................................................................................... 10 4.2 Characteristics of Open Source projects ................................................................................................ 11 4.3 The creation of a new public sphere ....................................................................................................... 12 4.4 Categories for the qualitative text analysis............................................................................................. 13 5. Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 5.1 Derived sub-categories ........................................................................................................................... 14 5.2 A glimpse of Open Source – Precious Plastic during the development of version 3.0 .......................... 14 5.2.1 Voluntary contributions – “we would like to know what our community has to say in regards.” .. 14 5.2.2 The sense of belonging - "more than a bunch of geeks”? ............................................................... 15 5.2.3 The decision-making in the project ................................................................................................. 15 5.2.4 Discussion of the own infrastructure .............................................................................................. 15 5.2.5 The vision for the project – a concern of the core team .................................................................. 16 5.2.6 Lowering barriers – discussed aspects of inclusiveness ................................................................. 16 5.2.7 Discussed impacts on the natural environment ............................................................................... 17 5.2.8 Discussed impacts on the human well-being .................................................................................. 17 5.2.9 Summary of Precious Plastics during the development of version 3.0 ........................................... 18 5.3 An increased potential and a gatekeeper - Precious Plastic during the development of version 4.0 ...... 18 5.3.1 Voluntary contributions – “Together we set the course” ................................................................. 18 5.3.2 Sense of belonging - “if you want to go far go together” ............................................................... 19 5.3.3 The decision-making in the project ................................................................................................. 19 5.3.4 Discussion of the own infrastructure .............................................................................................. 19 5.3.5 The vision for the project – a concern of them all .......................................................................... 20 5.3.6 Lowering barriers – discussed aspects of inclusiveness ................................................................. 20 5.3.7 Discussed impacts on the natural environment ............................................................................... 22 5.3.8 Discussed impacts on the human well-being .................................................................................. 24 5.3.9 Summary of Precious Plastics during the development of version 4.0 ........................................... 24 6. Discussion .................................................................................................................................................... 25 6.1 The democratisation of Precious Plastic ................................................................................................ 25 6.2 Factors that hindered the democratisation of Precious Plastic ............................................................... 26 6.3 The transformative potential of Precious Plastic .................................................................................... 27 6.4 The transformative potential of Open Source practices in environmental activism ............................... 28 6.5 Further research ...................................................................................................................................... 29 7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 29 8. Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... 31 9. References ................................................................................................................................................... 32 10. Appendices................................................................................................................................................. 35 10.1 Appendix 1: Qualitative Text Analysis of version 3 ............................................................................. 35 10.2 Appendix 2: Development Thread version 3.0 ..................................................................................... 39 10.3 Appendix 3: Official plan version 3.0 .................................................................................................. 44 10.4 Appendix 4: Qualitative Text Analysis of version 4.0 .......................................................................... 45 10.5 Appendix 5: Development Thread version 4.0 ..................................................................................... 59 10.6 Appendix 6: Official plan version 4.0 .................................................................................................. 75 Creating democratic technology for societal change: How Open Source practices can influence the negotiation of technology among activists. LUCAS LANGHOLF Langholf, L., 2019: Creating democratic technology for societal change: How Open Source practices can influence the negotiation of technology among activists. Master thesis in Sustainable Development at Uppsala University, No. 2019/46, 83 pp, 30 ECTS/hp Abstract: As the digital transformation and the technological development progresses, the tools, methods and practices of activists are changing and a unification of engineers and social reformers can be witnessed in contemporary forms of activism. This thesis presents