Hackerspace movement: a study of the Brazilian experience

Hackerspaces are part of a phenomenon emerging all over the world of building alternative spaces and infrastructure for research, experimenting and learning. They differ from other institutionally established spaces in their principles of autonomy: they are financed and managed by their own members and, as a result, they enjoy greater freedom in the definition of their themes and issues. In this article, we present the results of a research project carried out in 2017 about Brazilian hackerspaces. In the analysis, we resorted to the structure proposed by Smith et al. (2017) in their study about grassroots innovation movements, organised into four complementary aspects as follows: context, framings, spaces and strategies, and pathways. Thus, we contemplate the history of the movement in Brazil; meanings and narratives shared by participants; spaces and strategies employed in their structure and organisation; and, finally, case studies selected because they can be articulated with the local community issues.