Code Work : Hacking Across the US/México Techno-Borderlands / Héctor Beltrán.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beltrán, Héctor, author.

Series:

Princeton studies in culture and technology ; Volume 33.

Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology Series ; Volume 33

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anthropology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2023]

Summary:

How Mexican and Latinx hackers apply concepts from coding to their lived experiencesIn Code Work, Héctor Beltrán examines Mexican and Latinx coders' personal strategies of self-making as they navigate a transnational economy of tech work. Beltrán shows how these hackers apply concepts from the code worlds to their lived experiences, deploying batches, loose coupling, iterative processing (looping), hacking, prototyping, and full-stack development in their daily social interactions-at home, in the workplace, on the dating scene, and in their understanding of the economy, culture, and geopolitics. Merging ethnographic analysis with systems thinking, he draws on his eight years of research in México and the United States-during which he participated in and observed hackathons, hacker schools, and tech entrepreneurship conferences-to unpack the conundrums faced by workers in a tech economy that stretches from villages in rural México to Silicon Valley.Beltrán chronicles the tension between the transformative promise of hacking-the idea that coding will reconfigure the boundaries of race, ethnicity, class, and gender-and the reality of a neoliberal capitalist economy divided and structured by the US/México border. Young hackers, many of whom approach coding in a spirit of playfulness and exploration, are encouraged to appropriate the discourses of flexibility and self-management even as they remain outside formal employment. Beltrán explores the ways that "innovative culture" is seen as central in curing México's social ills, showing that when innovation is linked to technological development, other kinds of development are neglected. Beltrán's highly original, wide-ranging analysis uniquely connects technology studies, the anthropology of capitalism, and Latinx and Latin American studies.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Note to the Reader

Part 0: Introduction

[0] Todos con el mismo chip

[1] Hackathons, Hacker-Entrepreneurs, and Hacker Ethics

[2] Code Work AND the Ethno-Stack

[3] Techno-Borderlands

[4] Ethnographic Border Work

[5] Chapter Overview

Part I: Thinking with the System in México

[0] The First Hack of the Day

[1] Mexican Hackers as Model Entrepreneurial Subjects?

[2] Staging the Hackathon

[3] Code Work: Batches and Exceptions

[4] Code Work: Loose Coupling

[5] Still Waiting (in line for the hackathon)

Part II: Becoming Chingón at the Hackathon

Introduction

[0] From Carneworlds to CodeWorlds

[1] Hard Work AND Hard Jefes

[2] Breaking into OR Breaking out of?

[3] Other(ed) Hackers

[4] Hacking Imaginaries, Origins, and Intersections

Part III: Code Work across Domains

[0] Stories in the Time of Hacking

[1] Problem-Solving across Domains

[2] In the Mood for Love in (and out of) the Code Worlds

[3] 0s and 1s: Between Migrant and Coder Paranoias

[4] Rethinking Compulsive Programmers with the Ethno-Stack

Part IV: Abuelitas as Infrastructure

[0] Firsts in the Hacker Worlds

[1] Prototypes

[2] Code Work == Migra Work

[3] Participants-Who- Can-Participate

[4] Prototyping Latinidad at the Migrahack

[5] Always Already and Never Quite Yet

Part VI: Pivoting across the Techno-Borderlands

[0] From Politics to Pizzas

[1] Sombrero-ed Coders OR Coded Sombreros?

[2] Pivoting Presence

[3] "Perfect English" AND Latinx Frictions

[4] Flexible Neoliberalisms, Precarious Pivots

[5] The Latinx Hacker-Entrepreneur Pivot

Part VII. Coda: Working Code AND Working Futures

Appendix 0: Glossary

Appendix 1: Cast of Code Workers

Appendix 2: Featured Figurillas

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691245058

0691245053

OCLC:

1397570048