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    Complexities of collaboration : an open source story

    Author
    Callahan, Brian Robert
    View/Open
    179305_Callahan_rpi_0185E_11385.pdf (1.423Mb)
    Other Contributors
    Fortun, Michael; Fortun, Kim; Eglash, Ron, 1958-; Gordon, Tamar;
    Date Issued
    2018-08
    Subject
    Science and technology studies
    Degree
    PhD;
    Terms of Use
    This electronic version is a licensed copy owned by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. Copyright of original work retained by author.;
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13015/2285
    Abstract
    This dissertation examines how collaboration has been conceived and practiced in two communities of open source digital practice: the open source software community, most famously anchored by the Linux operating systems project; and Hypatia, a community of transgender software programmers. Drawing on extended participant-observation in each of these communities, I characterize different motivations to collaborate, different collaborative ideals, and what collaboration looks like in everyday practice. I also describe how modes of collaboration enact -- and sometimes actively resist -- established social, cultural and epistemological hierarchies, especially gender hierarchies. My overarching argument and contribution is theoretical and methodological: While often treated monolithically and naively -- as the same across instances -- collaboration, closely observed, can be shown to take many forms and is forcefully shaped by political economic conditions, social hierarchies, and arrays of ideas about priority social problems, the value of different kinds of work, and the purpose and promise of collaboration itself. My research also shows that modes of collaboration are powerfully shaped by both hierarchies of expertise and the affordance of supporting technical infrastructure.; Together, these factors shape what I’ve conceptualized as “collaborative styles” (M. Fortun forthcoming). My research has also resulted in a method for characterizing collaborative formations of different kinds, in different settings. This methodological framework is itself open source and freely available. This research draws on and contributes to social science literatures on collaboration, interdisciplinarity and team science; on the history and dynamics of the open source movement; and on gender dynamics in technologically mediated work spaces. This research can have broad social impact through identification of ways collaborative formations can work against gender bias conceptually, technically and through everyday practice. The research points to possibilities for moving beyond collaborative naivety to sustained awareness of ways collaboration both enables and limits critically differentiated work relations.;
    Description
    August 2018; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
    Department
    Dept. of Science and Technology Studies;
    Publisher
    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
    Relationships
    Rensselaer Theses and Dissertations Online Collection;
    Access
    Restricted to current Rensselaer faculty, staff and students. Access inquiries may be directed to the Rensselaer Libraries.;
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