DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/W243-8Q93
Defense Date
2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Sociology
First Advisor
Dr. Jesse Goldstein
Second Advisor
Dr. Victor Chen
Third Advisor
Dr. John Powers
Abstract
This research presents a generative critique of hackathon events held in the contemporary research university. Through the analysis of cultural imaginaries and embedded techno-political forms, it works toward an assessment of whether these events support, foreclose, or redirect ideas of the future that might otherwise challenge technocratic, accumulatory, and/or hierarchal organization. Informed by institutional histories and firsthand field research at events, dynamics of entrepreneurialism, gamification, and techno-solutionism are extrapolated and problematized. Ultimately, this research draws on a historical materialist approach to understanding how and why hackathon events have flourished in the university setting. Corroborating recent theories of platform capitalism, vectoralism, and the “hacker class,” this research uses critical genealogy and ethnography to problematize events and caution against the coercive filtering and funneling of creative energies at the hands of capitalist pressures.
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-18-2020
Included in
Politics and Social Change Commons, Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons