Se trataría de inventar prácticas de contra-diseño que puedan mantener un compromiso duradero con proyectos de vida politizados. ¿Podrá la educación del diseño cumplir esta misión? Los conocimientos académicos, fundados bajo el imperativo firme de la separación del mundo natural, parecieran ser completamente incompetentes para proveernos con los conocimientos en sintonía con la Tierra necesarios para que los humanos funcionemos acoplados con ella. Tampoco parecen ser capaces de acoger los conocimientos lugarizados y vernáculos de las culturas que se rehúsan a rendirse al mundo globalizado, manteniendo su sabiduría del habitar y de enraizar sus mundos.

. También es notable la tendencia de las comunidades locales a aceptar, con frecuencia bajo presiones de diverso tipo, los proyectos convencionales del desarrollo con corporaciones, oenegés o el Estado (e.g., los proyectos REDD). En el lado del decrecimiento el riesgo principal es la subversión de su significado a través de la ‘economía verde’ y aquellos esquemas que dejen intacta la arquitectura básica del economicismo.

. Cualquiera que haya sido el carácter transgresor del postmodernismo, Foster sostiene que ha sido convertido en rutina por el diseño, lo que contribuye al agotamiento de cualquier crítica bajo el sello de lo ‘post’ o lo ‘neo’. Por el contrario, la cultura comercial ha producido los sujetos diseñados del pancapitalismo

Despitetheirdifferences,theydogenerallyshareanimaginaryofcitizensubjectsasalreadyformedassubjectsofsubmission,wheretheirparticipationisamatterofaccess,skills,andusage.Itisanimaginaryofacitizenasasubjectwhoisoftensubmissive(ifnotobedient)andisactiveonlyinwaysrecognizedbygovernmentpoliciesandprogrammes.Alleffortsareaimedatdiscipliningsubjectsalongdigitalinclusionscalesthroughactionsthatinvolveaccess,skills,motivation,andtrust.Itisthroughrepetitionthattheseactionsbecomeembodiedandthroughwhichcitizensubjectsbecomegovernable.Digitalinclusionthusplacesdemandsonthecitizensubjecttouptaketheseactions,tobeskilledandtooled,andtolearnandbecomeknowledgeableandcompetentinlookingafterherselfandgoverninghersocialneeds

This was their space, not ours. Later thatafternoon I found a cluster of neighborhood kids clustering around a young woman who was teaching them basics of programming. They were intently leaning on her shoulder to get a better view of her laptop. To my mind this image captures the gamble of civic innovation: participants sneaking community voices in and rallying around their concerns, hoping they won’t be just another wave of gentrification driven by technology rather than rising rents.

Worrying that hacking might be “gentrified,” as Scott does, brings up a further irony. Hacking’s expansion beyond circles of tech-savvy, affluent white males demonstrates diversity, not homogeny. Seeking an essence of hacking misses this diversification. There are also risks in separating the exceptional and everyday hacker. A wall creates artificial distinctions between “haves” (intelligence, political awareness, skills) and “have nots.” The more productive perspective to gentrification might be hybrid forms of hacker pluralism.

A similar wall now exists between the exceptional and ordinary hacker. Journalistic and academic writing defines hackers as resistant geeks capable of bringing about changes in governments and corporations. The hacker is the powerful underdog, plotted against by the powers that be. Their anti-hero status is even more salient when viewing the trope of the hacker in popular media. We cheer for the exceptional hacker, as well we should. But in many readings hacking’s subversive nature is assumed to be diluted by its mainstreaming. Disappointment is rampant when hackers are found not to be sufficiently resistant. Brett Scott echoes this perspective when he writes about how the “wild and anarchic” hacker ethos was gentrified by “yuppies” (2015). Evgeny Morozov (January 13, 2014) interpreted makers as no more than commodified hackers lacking a radical edge. Hackers simply lost their mojo. It is only with a shrug and a sigh they are revealed to be dupes of a fraudulent ideology. At most dystopian, David Golumbia’s cyberlibertarian thesis, coming from critical studies, proposes that hackers’ espouse a technological solutionism that is responsible for the collapse of the political left (Golumbia, 2013).

The gentrification of hacking is… well, perhaps a perfect hack.

And before you know it, an earnest Stanford grad is handing me a business card that says, without irony: ‘Founder. Investor. Hacker.’

The countercultural trickster has been pressed into the service of the preppy tech entrepreneur class.