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The definitive reference work with comprehensive analysis and review of peer production
Peer production is no longer the sole domain of small groups of technical or academic elites. The internet has enabled millions of people to collectively produce, revise, and distribute everything from computer operating systems and applications to encyclopedia articles and film and television databases. Today, peer production has branched out to include wireless networks, online currencies, biohacking, and peer-to-peer urbanism, amongst others. The Handbook of Peer Production outlines central concepts, examines current and emerging areas of application, and analyzes the forms and principles of cooperation that continue to impact multiple areas of production and sociality.
Featuring contributions from an international team of experts in the field, this landmark work maps the origins and manifestations of peer production, discusses the factors and conditions that are enabling, advancing, and co-opting peer production, and considers its current impact and potential consequences for the social order. Detailed chapters address the governance, political economy, and cultures of peer production, user motivations, social rules and norms, the role of peer production in social change and activism, and much more. Filling a gap in available literature as the only extensive overview of peer production’s modes of generating informational goods and services, this groundbreaking volume:
The Handbook of Peer Production is an indispensable resource for students, instructors, researchers, and professionals working in fields including communication studies, science and technology studies, sociology, and management studies, as well as those interested in the network information economy, the public domain, and new forms of organization and networking.
Mathieu O’Neil is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Canberra’s News & Media Research Centre and Honorary Associate Professor of Sociology at the Australian National University, where he contributed to the creation of the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks. He is the founder and maintainer of the Journal of Peer Production. His work has been published in Social Networks, Journal of Peer Production, Réseaux, Information, Communication & Society, Organization Studies, and New Media and Society, among others.
Christian Pentzold is Professor of Communication and Media at the Institute for Media Research, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany. Previously, he worked in the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research at the University of Bremen. His work in communication research and media analysis links to insights coming from cultural sociology, linguistics as well as science and technology studies. His work has come out with Media, Culture & Society, New Media and Society, Communication, Culture and Critique, and the International Journal of Communication.
Sophie Toupin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her doctoral research examines the relationship between technology and anti-colonialism during liberation struggles. Her work has been published in New Media and Society, Intermediality: History and Theory of the Arts, Literature, and Technologies, Canadian Journal of Communication, Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, Journal of Peer Production, and Les cahiers du gerse.
Preface
Author biographies
Chapter summaries
List of tables
List of figures
Part I – Introduction
Chapter 01 – The Duality of Peer Production: Infrastructure for the Commons, Free Labor for Firms (Mathieu O’Neil, Sophie Toupin & Christian Pentzold)
Part II – Concepts: Explaining Peer Production
Chapter 02 – Grammar of Peer Production (Vasilis Kostakis & Michel Bauwens)
Chapter 03 – Political Economy of Peer Production (Benjamin Birkinbine)
Chapter 04 – Social Norms and Rules of Peer Production (Christian Pentzold)
Chapter 05 – Cultures of Peer Production (Michael Stevenson)
Chapter 06 (reprint) – Commons-Based Peer Production and Virtue (Yochai Benkler & Helen Nissenbaum)
Part III – Conditions: Enabling Peer Production
Chapter 07 – Prophets and Advocates (George Dafermos)
Chapter 08 – Virtue, Efficiency, and the Sharing Economy (Margie Borschke)
Chapter 09 – Openness and Licensing (Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay)
Chapter 10 – User Motivations in Peer Production (Sebastian Spaeth & Sven Niederhöfer)
Chapter 11 – Governing for Growth in Scope: Cultivating a Dynamic Understanding of How Peer Production Collectives Evolve (Rebecca Karp, Amisha Miller & Siobhan O’Mahony)
Part IV – Cases: Realizing Peer Production
Chapter 12 – Free & Open Source Software (Stéphane Couture)
Chapter 13 – Wikipedia and Wikis (Jutta Haider & Olof Sundin)
Chapter 14 – Hacker Cartography: Participatory Mapmaking and Technological Power (Adam Fish)
Chapter 15 – Peer Learning (Panayotis Antoniadis & Alekos Pantazis)
Chapter 16 – Biohacking (Morgan Meyer)
Chapter 17 – Makers (Yana Boeva & Peter Troxler)
Chapter 18 – Blockchain (Pablo Velasco Gonzáles & Nate Tkacz)
Chapter 19 – Wireless Community Networks (Gwen Shaffer)
Chapter 20 – Urban Commons (Nicholas Anastapoulos)
Part V – Conflicts: Peer Production and the World
Chapter 21 – Peer Production and Social Change (Mathieu O’Neil & Sébastien Broca)
Chapter 22 – Peer Production and Collective Action (Stefania Milan)
Chapter 23 – Feminist Peer Production (Sophie Toupin)
Chapter 24 – Postcolonial Peer Production (Maitrayee Deka)
Chapter 25 – Gaps in Peer Design (Francesca Musiani)
Chapter 26 – Makerspaces and Peer Production: Spaces of Possibility, Tension, Post-Automation, or Liberation? (Kat Braybrooke & Adrian Smith)
Chapter 27 – Peer Production and State Theory: Envisioning a Cooperative Partner State (Alex Pazaitis & Wolfgang Drechsler)
Part VI – Conversions: Advancing Peer Production
Chapter 28 – Making a Case for Peer Production: Interviews with Peter Bloom, Mariam Mecky, Ory Okolloh, Abraham Taherivand & Stefano Zacchiroli
Chapter 29 – What’s Next? Peer Production Studies? (Mathieu O’Neil, Sophie Toupin & Christian Pentzold)
Chapter 30 – Be Your Own Peer! Principles and Policies for the Commons (Mathieu O’Neil, Sophie Toupin & Christian Pentzold)
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