ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores how the maker movement might constitute a valuable mechanism through which the emergence of more environmentally sustainable material cultures in consumer economies might be facilitated. In light of the age and gender implications of the changing spatiality of mending, and in spite of the claims about the inherent democracy of the maker movement, there are questions to be answered about the inclusivity and accessibility of making practices and places. The increasingly networked global community of making enthusiasts that comprise the maker movement emphasises the intrinsic human desire for connection as well as throwing down a challenge to passive consumer culture. The notion of habitus as an experientially produced, embodied and transferable disposition to the socio-material world forms the first conceptual building block for the maker-habitus. Since competence can only be achieved through practice, first-hand manual interaction with the material world is fundamental to the genesis and manifestation of maker-habitus.
