Do-It-Together: Feminist Reconfigurations of Hacking In Montreal Kristina Haralanova A Thesis in the Department of Communication Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Communication) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada July 2019 © Kristina Haralanova, 2019 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Kristina Haralanova Entitled: Do-It-Together: Feminist Reconfigurations of Hacking in Montreal And submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Communication) Complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standard with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the examining committee: _______________________________________________ Chair Dr. Rachel Berger _______________________________________________ External Examiner Dr. Radhika Gajjala _______________________________________________ External to Program Dr. Kimberley Manning _______________________________________________ Examiner Dr. Fenwick McKelvey _______________________________________________ Examiner Dr. Alessandra Renzi _______________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor Dr. Kimberly Sawchuk Approved by ____________________________________________ Dr. Jeremy Stolow, Graduate Program Director August 30, 2019 ____________________________________________ Dr. Andre Roy, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science Abstract Do-it-together: Feminist Reconfigurations of Hacking in Montreal Kristina Haralanova, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2019 Technological practitioners and observers often depict hacking cultures as fast-evolving spaces for social, political, technological and cultural innovation. While interest in hackerspaces is growing in terms of technological innovation, limited attention has been paid to building inclusive collective real-world spaces for hacking. This dissertation addresses this lacuna in two ways: First, this study looks into the forms of inclusion and exclusion found in traditional hacking spaces, exploring in detail the invisible boundaries formed in and around such spaces. Second, this study foregrounds feminist hacker practices and the alternatives they offer to such limited traditional hacking spaces. It argues that traditional hackerspaces, while empowering a few, encourage segregation within the hacker movement and enforce unwritten norms that relegate a large number of hackers (female, queer, transgender) to the margins or even the outside. To this end, this thesis examines two case studies in the city of Montreal: Foulab, a traditional hackerspace, and Femhack, a feminist hacker collective. As a hacker, a feminist and a researcher, I chose to study these communities through an Ethnographic Action Research Methodology, a methodology which helped me to document, contextualize and analyze the local expressions of the hacker movement, while theorizing its real and potential approaches to space, community-building, and learning through technology. By using the advantage of my insider position, this research assesses the democratic limits and possibilities of hackerspaces in Montreal and beyond. It offers four takeaways: 1) The traditional hackerspace model reproduces patriarchal structures that create barriers for women and other minorities, due to an overemphasis on technology and individual achievement. 2) Feminist hackerspaces welcome participants and are actively inviting, not just welcoming in theory. Choosing to invite marginalized hackers in is more powerful than just “leaving the door open” for them. 3) Broadening the definition of hacking to include areas in which men are not already the default experts, creates a more just, diverse, and equitable hacker field of expertise, thus breaking hierarchies and power relationships in this technological field. 4) Feminist pedagogies stressing on collaborative learning and applying in the hacker practice open the barriers set in traditional hackerspaces, creating spaces respectful of participants’ differences and needs. In a nutshell, I suggest that the ideals and practices of the feminist hackerspaces examined in this thesis could be the beginning of a movement from a DIY (do-it-yourself) toward a DIT (do-it- together) hacking culture focused on more connected local communities, encouraging sustained engagement and more inclusive participation in the hacker movement. iii Acknowledgements and Dedication I have many people and spaces to thank for the completion of this thesis. My initial and my current supervisors, Prof. Leslie Regan-Shade and Prof. Kim Sawchuk, for the inspiration to start and finish this exciting journey. I am grateful to my research participants for all the ongoing discussions, for your generosity and honesty during the interviews. I appreciate your understanding of my difficult position and continuous support throughout the data gathering process and its analysis. Some of you read through these pages and helped make this thesis more diverse and colorful with your thoughts and ideas. I am thankful, as well, to all the hacker friends who did not make it to this thesis, but equally inspired me, frustrated me, and sometimes made me want a better hacking life. I want to thank some of the early readers of this manuscript, many of whom gave me invaluable advice on how to proceed, by clarifying which parts were valuable to them. Many of those are members of the Bits-Bots-Bytes reading group led by Gabriella Coleman from McGill University. In particular, I want to mention colleagues and friends such as Alex Megelas, Alex Sheldon, Maxigas, Ellen Foster, Fenwick McKelvey, Elena Razlogova, Alessandro Delfanti, Stephane Couture, Sophie Toupin, Steffanie Schirmer, Anne Goldenberg, Evan Light, and of course Biella Coleman for your continuous support and interest in my thesis topic. Thanks to my proofreaders Reny Ivanova and Aaron Ricker, who were my second pair of eyes right up until the last moment. Thank you, mom, for asking me almost every week for many years, where I was at with the thesis. It was hard to say sometimes, but now she can finally be proud and relieved that she doesn’t have to ask this question again. Thanks to my partner, Ahmad, hacker, Ph.D. himself, and tech activist, for the unconditional continuous support regarding both the subject and the process. Thank you to my kids Boriana, Eli and Mina who were my inspiration for seeking a better world of hacking, which, I believe, they will also belong to one day. This thesis was written in more than 10 countries, and an equal number of hacker events and hackerspaces, in the mountains, seaside, and cottages. Among them were San Francisco, Valencia, iv Berlin, several New York (H.O.P.E.), Chaos Computer Camp 2015 and 2019 (Germany), OHM 2013 (Netherlands), Hacklab - Toronto, Foulab, Kostenetz, La Belle Verte, The Bulbes, San Diego, libraries in Barcelona, Paris, Sofia, Canmore, Calgary University, the Concordia thesis boost events, Hacker summer school (Germany), and the Summer Research Writing Residence, which I did not leave for almost two years (Thanks, Marc!), and many others. Special mention goes to Chalet Beaumont in Val David, to which I owe many pages of this manuscript. I want to dedicate this thesis to my grandfather Prof. Ivan Goranov, who passed away a day before my thesis defence, the only member of the family who worked to obtain a Ph.D., and who never asked me any completion-related questions. I feel proud to have had him in my life for 42 years, and now in my heart forever! We climbed so many mountains together! v Table of Contents List of Tables x Introduction 1 Research Questions 6 Why Montreal? 8 My Role in This Research 11 Thesis Structure by Chapter 14 Chapter 1 Hacker Cultures and Feminist Hacker Countercultures: Unpacking the Notions 16 Definitions of Hacking 16 Common Aspects of Hacker Culture 18 Hackerspaces and Inclusion/Exclusion 22 Gender, Feminism and Hacking 26 Feminist Hackerspaces - Sites of Hacker Counterculture 29 Chapter 2 Theorizing Space, Feminism and Communities in Technology 35 Theorizing Space in Dynamic, Transformative Communities 36 Space, Boundaries and the Construction of Difference 39 Space and Gender 41 Feminist Theories of Technology 43 The Mutual Shaping of Gender and Technology 44 A Technofeminist Perspective 47 The Popular Technology 49 vi Conclusion 53 Chapter 3 Research Design: Ethnographic Action Research and Two Case Studies 55 Ethnographic Action Research - Study of Processes and Practices 56 Ethnographic Action Research in two hackerspaces 60 Challenges of Using Ethnographic Action Research 61 Feminist Research 62 Tools and Techniques for Data Gathering 65 Sample, Selection Process and Research Ethics 67 Researched Sites - Two Case Studies 68 Role and Contribution of Participants and Researcher 71 Analysis and Interpretation 74 Chapter 4 Case Study 1: Foulab - Boundaries within Open Space 76 The Space 77 Experience Based on Status - Members, Users, Visitors 79 The Foulab Case Study 82 The Unwritten Rules - Boundaries of Participation 84 Corporeal Practices 89 Representations 96 Works of Objects 102 How the Foulab Women’s Group Formed 107 Chapter Conclusion 111 vii Chapter 5 Case Study 2: Femhack - DIT in Feminist Hacking: Space, Definitions, Learning 113 Preamble: 2012 Foufem Hackathon 115 Becoming Femhack 121 Reconsidering Hackerspaces’ Spatial Arrangements 124 DIT in Operation - Four Events - Four Spaces 127 2014 - Espace Fibre - HackFest 128 2013-2015 - Bulbes - Fix-it-together