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Shea, P. (2015). DIY Citizenship in the ‘New Northern Ireland’: the Case of a Belfast Makerspace. In
Civic Media Project, Eds. E. Gordon and P. Mihailidis. An Initiative of the Engagement Lab at Emerson
College and MIT Press.
http://civicmediaproject.org/works/civic-media-project/diycitizenshipinthenewnorthernireland
DIY Citizenship in the ‘New Northern Ireland’: the
Case of a Belfast Makerspace
Dr. Pip Shea
Figure 1: Farset Labs, Belfast
(Photo: David Kane)
1. Introduction
Northern Ireland is emerging from a violent sectarian conflict colloquially known as
The Troubles. Contested top-down peace building initiatives (Murtagh 2011, 1132)
imposing socio-economic development agendas on local actors underpin approaches
to change (Richmond and Mitchell 2011, 338). The following case offers an
alternative perspective of the “new Northern Ireland” (Ramsey 2012, 165), the story
of Belfast’s Farset Labs [figure 1]. Branded a makerspace, Farset Labs offers new
paradigms of civic participation inspired by a culture of contribution, social learning,
and technology experimentation. Farset provides a platform for the assembling of
self-directed civic identities, or so called, do-it-yourself (DIY) citizenship (Hartley
1999, 5). The organization offers evidence of emergent, multi-faceted civic
participation linked to a global movement encouraging DIY ethics through making
(Gauntlett 2011, 11).
2. Background: why this case?
Recognized as a non-profit with charitable status and affectionately known as a “geek
gym,” Farset Labs relies on monthly membership fees to operate. Situated near
Belfast’s City Centre, Farset offers members and the local community a space to
make and modify hardware and software. The organization’s online and offline
operations are mutually inclusive. Its geographical position and digital networks work
in tandem to influence its member base and outreach activities. Farset’s landlord is a
key patron, offering the organization flexible rental terms and the freedom to “hack
the space” to make it more appropriate for their operations. The lab also offers
resources and activities traditionally associated with community centers such as
informal education programs and free social events. Tinkering and experimentation
activities situate the organization, however Farset Labs’ director Andrew Bolster –
one of four1—admits the venture “has only got a little bit to do with technology,”
citing the facilitation of social connection as its most important function2. The
byproduct of this is strong ties between Belfast’s technologist and maker
communities that lead to new modes of civic participation.
1 The current Farset Labs directors are Ben Bland, Andrew Bolster, David Kane and Dylan Wylie.
2 “Nesta in Belfast,” Farset Labs’ presentation during NESTA Roadshow in Belfast, accessed May 29,
2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SGxpwkexWY.
Figure 2: Farset Labs’ CoderDojo event
(Photo: David Kane)
3. Presentation of findings
Farset Labs offers fertile ground for self-directed civic activities. Traditional
community organizing tactics such as “Town Hall” meetings invite members to
actively govern the space. Town Hall participants discuss events, facilities, finances,
marketing and communications, and are invited to contribute to meeting agendas in
shared online documents. The online forum Farset Discourse3 offers a collaborative
platform for knowledge sharing that supports lively discussions about events,
projects, and the operations of the space.
In mid-2013, the successful crowdfunding of a 3D printer offered another example of
civic participation, as people became involved in directly financing equipment for the
space. CoderDojos offer free coding clubs for young people [figure 2]: Farset Lab
members volunteer as mentors to help participants design games, create websites, and
build robots. Other volunteer-run community engagement activities include
Raspberry Jams, which are informal education workshops that explore the basics of
3 “Farset Discourse,” Farset Labs’ online forum, accessed April 27, 2014,
http://discourse.farsetlabs.org.uk.
the Raspberry Pi single board computer. Free Flacknites4 (Farset Labs Hack Nights)
are another event offering. Flacknite participants are challenged to finish a technical
project or solve a problem in twenty-four hours. The organization has also established
links with the local business community: Intel signed up as a corporate member and
made contributions in the form of hardware donations.
Underpinning this civic participation are critical making activities, where the
modification of things inherently challenges existing systems of authority (Ratto and
Boler 2014, 5). Farset’s encouragement of the reuse of technology “waste” is one
such example. At a recent hackathon, the winning team was singled out because they
used toilet cisterns to make a Twitter-powered drinks dispenser [figure 3]. Critical
making is also apparent in the organization’s use of an Extendible Hardware
Donation License,5 a sharing paradigm that gives equipment owners of the flexibility
to donate their hardware under conditional arrangements.
Figure 3: Hackathon participants
(Photo: Ben Bland)
4 “Farset Labs Decimated,” Farset Labs’ Flacknite time lapse video, accessed June 11, 2014,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtvqquHb7Mw.
5 “Extendable Hardware Donation License V1.0,” Farset Labs’ hardware donation license, accessed
April 2, 2014, http://www.farsetlabs.org.uk/about/hardware_donation_license.html#extendible-
hardware-donation-license-v10
4. Conclusion
Makerspaces are an emergent institutional form facilitating new civic media rituals.
The sociotechnical dynamics of these civic activities are site specific and nuanced, as
members engaged in DIY citizenship generate new modes of civic participation. In
the case of Farset Labs, the foundation of these new civic identities is a culture of
sharing and learning that extends from hacking microcontrollers to collectively
developing the social contract for membership.
Although different demographics use Farset Labs as a platform for DIY citizenship,
barriers to participation still exist. More formal institutions are often accountable to
diversity policies, but grassroots cultural infrastructure like Farset Labs primarily rely
on the participation of people who have agency. The collectively determined aims of
the organization also have the potential to limit the performance of civic identities.
Farset Labs are a node in a system that has been described in humanities research as
connected learning, the foci of which are social learning and the making (Ito et al, 75)
of things that happen across different sites and locations, online and offline. The
activities facilitated by Farset Labs extends the social learning of making by
encouraging alternative thinking and responsible action, which challenges normative
understandings of democratic systems and civic participation.
Figure 4: Participants engaged in a games development event at Farset Labs
(Photo: Ben Bland)
5. References
Hartley, John. 1999. Uses of Television. London: Routledge
Ito, Mizuko, Kris Gutiérrez, Sonia Livingstone, Bill Penuel, Jean Rhodes, Katie
Salen, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green and S. Craig Watkins. 2013. Connected
Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design. Irvine: Digital Media and Learning
Research Hub.
Murtagh, Brendan. 2011. Desegregation and Place Structuring in the New Belfast.
Urban Studies 48 (6):1119–1135.
Ramsey, Phil. 2012. "A Pleasingly Blank Canvas": Urban Regeneration in Northern
Ireland and the Case of Titanic Quarter. Space and Polity 17 (2):164–179.
Ratto, Matt, and Megan Boler. 2014. Introduction. In DIY Citizenship: Critical
Making and Social Media, Eds. Matt Ratto and Megan Boler. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Richmond, Oliver P., and Audra Mitchell. 2011. Peacebuilding and Critical Forms of
Agency: From Resistance to Subsistence. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 36
(4):326–344.
