[P2P-F] Please circulate: Call for papers – The political economy of 3D printing

Thu Feb 16 17:11:01 CET 2012

 Call for papers – The political economy of 3D printing
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  Online journal *Re-public* invites contributions for its upcoming special
issue entitled “The political economy of 3D printing”. The age of three
dimensional printers and additive manufacturing has arrived, to the point
to which, many analysts liken it to the first years of regular printers or
even personal computers back in the 1980’s. The largely unexplored
questions of its social, political, cultural and economic implications will
influence its future development.The special issue will address some of the
following themes:

   - What types of infrastructures are necessary for incorporating such
   equipment in the everyday process of production and what impact would this
   have to the economy of a country?
   - How can we evaluate the sustainability of such machinery, in relation
   to the different purposes it can potentially serve, i.e., from artistic
   interventions to practical applications on the architecture of developing
   countries and from decorative functions to medical practices?
   - The 3D printer as a means of production, as part of the peer-to-peer
   movement as well as of the transfer of open source culture to the
   production of physical goods. What kind of modes and relations of
   production are emerging from this development and to what end? A critical
   approach is certainly needed.
   - Coming back to “now”, what is the position of 3D printing in the
   general context of socio-technological developments and to what extent can
   its operation have immediate practical and useful results? Or is it that
   its potential impact is confined, for the time, to the more academic and
   scientific sphere until it becomes even more mature?

 This issue will try to focus on the social, cultural, economic and
political aspects of the evolution of the “Do it yourself” (DIY) to the
“Design and do it yourself” (DADIY) model, as well as the future
implications that this might create.

Send your articles (up to 2000 words) in .odt or .doc format, to the email
address: mfountouklis at gmail.com

Deadline for submissions: *31 May 2012*
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