From Needs Analysis to Power Analysis: A Framework to Examine & Broker Power in Makerspaces

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  • Marshall, Brianna
    • Other Affiliation: University of California Riverside
  • Melo, Marijel (Maggie)
    • Affiliation: School of Information and Library Science
Abstract
  • This pre-print is a chapter to be included in the forthcoming book, Re-making the Makerspace: Critical Theories, Reflections and Practices (Melo and Nichols, 2019). This chapter presents a power analysis framework that extends an entry point to examine how power is wielded, concentrated, and systemically embedded within a makerspace. Power analyses are not novel concepts. People, especially women, LGBTQ+ and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), assess power dynamics in their lives routinely. Research shows that the marginalization of these communities are especially pronounced in tech-centric environments such as makerspaces (Meyer, 2018; Lewis 2015). This is especially baffling because makerspaces are notoriously promoted as open, collaborative environments where everyone is considered to be a maker (“Be a Maker”). This is where this power analysis framework intervenes: How do purportedly open and collaborative makerspaces continue to attract a narrow demographic of users, while simultaneously marginalizing certain communities (Britton 2015; Vossoughi, S., Hooper, P., & Escudé, M., 2016; Warnshuis, 2014)? This framework provides structured, not prescriptive, guidance to support persons interested in analyzing the power dynamics within a makerspace (or by extension other (in)formal STEM-rich learning spaces). In particular, the analysis offers users an instrument to examine the phenomenological properties of power with a structured approach. The intention is to give language and semblance to power -- an otherwise abstract entity (Pachecho 2018). This tool is meant to generate insights and data for the user, and is comprised of open-ended questions/suggestions on several domains where power resides. The following domains comprise this burgeoning framework: “people,” “space and equipment,” “events and programming,” and “outputs” -- these areas are further detailed later in the chapter. Similar to a 360 image, there isn’t one place to start because power is multi-directional and complex. Users are encouraged to begin with any domain of their choosing.
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  • In Copyright
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  • 1
Page end
  • 10
Language
  • English
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  • Preprint

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