Make to Relate: Analyzing Narratives of Community Practice

As young people design, build, and problem solve within maker spaces and clubs, they talk about making. We analyze short interviews with young people involved in maker clubs, conducted during public presentations, and hypothesize a progression through frames of participation. Moving from exploration, to exchange, and on to deliberate engagement, these frames reflect changes in the nature of participation, appropriation of community practices, and adoption of making as a tool for identity work and interest development.