The Politics of Open Infrastructures
This volume examines how openness is designed, governed, contested and lived in contemporary digital knowledge infrastructures. From open source software and internet standards, to citizen science platforms, public sector data systems and alternative computing practices, the book shows that infrastr...
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| Format: | Online |
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| Język: | angielski |
| Wydane: |
Open Book Publishers
2026
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| Hasła przedmiotowe: | |
| Dostęp online: | 2054-2429 |
| Etykiety: |
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| _version_ | 1869521152720764928 |
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| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | This volume examines how openness is designed, governed, contested and lived in contemporary digital knowledge infrastructures. From open source software and internet standards, to citizen science platforms, public sector data systems and alternative computing practices, the book shows that infrastructures are never neutral technical backbones. They are deeply political arrangements that embed values, distribute power and shape whose knowledge counts.Bringing together scholars from science and technology studies, critical data studies, media studies, organisation studies, arts-based research and political sociology, this edited volume explores openness as an ongoing socio-technical process rather than a fixed ideal. The book moves from the partial openness of early Internet standards and free and open source software, through contested practices of opening government data and public infrastructures, to struggles over inclusion and governance in scholarly and cultural knowledge infrastructures. This is followed by community-driven experiments in care, repair and alternative openness and concludes with forward-looking contributions on how to keep infrastructures open for research, how to fund infrastructures as digital commons and how to mobilise open infrastructures for democratic resilience and economic sovereignty.The contributions trace how principles such as accessibility, transparency, participation and collective stewardship are enacted in practice—and how they are challenged by commercial capture, asymmetries of expertise, cultural governance and geopolitical inequalities. Across theoretical chapters and rich empirical case studies, the book investigates the governance of open infrastructures, the politics of alternative technological arrangements and struggles for epistemic justice within knowledge systems.By foregrounding power relations, ethical tensions and questions of responsibility, this book rethinks openness as a site of political negotiation rather than a technical solution. The volume offers critical insights for researchers, policymakers, engineers and civil society actors concerned with digital commons, democratic governance and the future of open knowledge infrastructures in increasingly contested political and technical environments.A companion website, www.openinfrastructures.net , extends the volume through author interviews, supplementary materials and additional resources that document the making of the book and provide further insights into the debates on governing, sustaining, and contesting open digital knowledge infrastructures. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-177132 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| publisherStr | Open Book Publishers |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1771322026-06-02T05:14:28Z The Politics of Open Infrastructures Meyer, Katja | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1184-595X Mager, Astrid | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7447-2957 Ridgway, Renée | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1483-9996 Digital commons Digital governance Epistemic justice Open knowledge infrastructures Open source and open access Politics of technology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHB Sociology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theory thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UT Computer networking and communications thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UY Computer science This volume examines how openness is designed, governed, contested and lived in contemporary digital knowledge infrastructures. From open source software and internet standards, to citizen science platforms, public sector data systems and alternative computing practices, the book shows that infrastructures are never neutral technical backbones. They are deeply political arrangements that embed values, distribute power and shape whose knowledge counts.Bringing together scholars from science and technology studies, critical data studies, media studies, organisation studies, arts-based research and political sociology, this edited volume explores openness as an ongoing socio-technical process rather than a fixed ideal. The book moves from the partial openness of early Internet standards and free and open source software, through contested practices of opening government data and public infrastructures, to struggles over inclusion and governance in scholarly and cultural knowledge infrastructures. This is followed by community-driven experiments in care, repair and alternative openness and concludes with forward-looking contributions on how to keep infrastructures open for research, how to fund infrastructures as digital commons and how to mobilise open infrastructures for democratic resilience and economic sovereignty.The contributions trace how principles such as accessibility, transparency, participation and collective stewardship are enacted in practice—and how they are challenged by commercial capture, asymmetries of expertise, cultural governance and geopolitical inequalities. Across theoretical chapters and rich empirical case studies, the book investigates the governance of open infrastructures, the politics of alternative technological arrangements and struggles for epistemic justice within knowledge systems.By foregrounding power relations, ethical tensions and questions of responsibility, this book rethinks openness as a site of political negotiation rather than a technical solution. The volume offers critical insights for researchers, policymakers, engineers and civil society actors concerned with digital commons, democratic governance and the future of open knowledge infrastructures in increasingly contested political and technical environments.A companion website, www.openinfrastructures.net , extends the volume through author interviews, supplementary materials and additional resources that document the making of the book and provide further insights into the debates on governing, sustaining, and contesting open digital knowledge infrastructures. 2026-06-02T05:14:26Z 2026-06-02T05:14:26Z 2026-06-01T03:33:48Z 2026 book 2054-2429 https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/OBP.0528 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/113889 9781805118879 9781805118886 9781805118893 9781805118916 9781805118909 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/177132 eng Digital Humanities Series open access image/jpeg https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/113889/4/9781805118893.pdf Open Book Publishers Open Book Publishers 10.11647/OBP.0528 10.11647/OBP.0528 b014b543-78bd-4c3b-bc71-b68e2ac855b9 9781805118879 9781805118886 9781805118893 9781805118916 9781805118909 Open Book Publishers 386 Cambridge, UK open access |
| spellingShingle | Digital commons Digital governance Epistemic justice Open knowledge infrastructures Open source and open access Politics of technology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHB Sociology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theory thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UT Computer networking and communications thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UY Computer science The Politics of Open Infrastructures |
| title | The Politics of Open Infrastructures |
| title_full | The Politics of Open Infrastructures |
| title_fullStr | The Politics of Open Infrastructures |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Politics of Open Infrastructures |
| title_short | The Politics of Open Infrastructures |
| title_sort | politics of open infrastructures |
| topic | Digital commons Digital governance Epistemic justice Open knowledge infrastructures Open source and open access Politics of technology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHB Sociology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theory thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UT Computer networking and communications thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UY Computer science |
| topic_facet | Digital commons Digital governance Epistemic justice Open knowledge infrastructures Open source and open access Politics of technology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHB Sociology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theory thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UT Computer networking and communications thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UY Computer science |
| url | 2054-2429 |