A convergence of computer hackers and traditional artisans, the niche is established enough to have its own magazine, Make, as well as hands-on Maker Faires that are catnip for DIYers who used to toil in solitude".
His third book, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution (2012), emphasizes the role that making has to play in the renaissance of American manufacturing.
In the United States, hands-on learning through making has roots in the nineteenth century, as a result of the influence of educators such as Calvin M. Woodward, who established the Manual Training School of Washington University on June 6, 1879.
The Arts and Crafts movement, which originated in Britain before taking hold in Europe and North America, was anti-industrial, critical of machinery and factory production, advocating instead for a return to traditional craftsmanship.
Proponents of the maker movement cite the potential for making to bring more women to STEM fields and close the gender gap.
[12] The Obama administration has also strongly supported the growing maker movement as an integral part of STEM education, which it hopes will increase American students ability to compete globally in the areas of science, engineering, and math.
Among the critics is Evgeny Morozov, a Belarusian writer and researcher, whose work focuses on the impact, both social and political, of technology.
In his article published in The New Yorker, entitled, "Making It: Pick up a spot welder and join the revolution",[17] Morozov criticizes Chris Anderson for "confusing the history of the Web with the history of capitalism and ends by speculating about the future of the maker movement, which, on closer examination, is actually speculation on the future of capitalism".
Debbie Chachra, associate professor at Olin College of Engineering, in her article in the January 23, 2015 issue of The Atlantic, entitled, "Why I Am Not a Maker",[18] centers her criticism on "the social history of who makes things—and who doesn't".
Chachra describes the history of the "makers" of products as men, rather than those who cared for "hearth and home", that is, historically, women.
While this experience is satisfying and fun (and Wark does acknowledge the way in which his children are not hemmed in by gender expectations while playing at the Maker Faire), it doesn't teach the underlying principles required for the actual making of functional objects.
A Focus on Equity: However, researchers, such as Calabrese Barton and Tan, have argued that youth make in ways that promote new just social futures.