17 The Joys of Wiki Work: Craftsmanship, Flow and Self-externalization in a Digital Environment
Year: 2020
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Public discussions on digital technology and the Internet tend generally to be\nframed in epochalist terms and to be rife with utopian and dystopian projections\nof our imminent digital futures (Du Gay 2003; Henningsen and Larsen, this volume). As many observers have noted, in recent years a shift in the tone of such\ndiscussions has occurred, as the optimism that accrued to the Web 2.0 and social media 10–15 years ago has waned, with darker visions being brought to the\nfore. Today, a probing of the role of social media as vehicles of misinformation,\ncommoditization, and mass surveillance looms large in popular and scholarly discussions alike (Fuchs et al. 2012; Van Dijck 2013). However, there is one notable\nexception to this trend in the current flora of social media: since the turn of the\ncentury, Wikipedia and platforms based on the wiki-technology have been a constant source of positive wonder among commentators. This relates to the democratic nature of the Wikipedia organization, to the deliberative aspect of content\nproduction, and to the platforms’ persistent avoidance of commercialism (FirerBlaes and Fuchs 2014; Van Dijck 2013; Wright 2010).¹\nProsumers (Ritzer et al. 2012; Toffler 1980) have contributed millions of articles for Wikipedia and other wiki-platforms. The true wonder of wiki-platforms\nis their capacity to mobilize contributors in great numbers and to incite them to\nwrite and edit articles. Based on a case study of the Norwegian local history wiki\nplatform lokalhistoriewiki.no, we seek to understand what motivates contributors to engage in wiki work, and how this can be specified theoretically. We argue\nthat wiki work is an avenue for the exertion of craftsmanship (Sennett 2009), and\nthat it involves psychological processes of flow (Csikszentmihalyi 2008[1991]) and\nsocial processes of self-externalization (Elster 1989).
Source: Saur eBooks
Authors: Erik Henningsen, Håkon Larsen
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W3101600809