Popularization of technology and collaboration in the Fab Lab Livre SP program

Abstract

Social participation and collaborative practices were the basis for the development of the public policy Fab Lab Livre SP of the City Hall of Sao Paulo, aiming to bring the ideals of the hacker and maker cultures to the peripheral areas of the city, offering access to cutting-edge technology. In order to evaluate this policy, this article utilizes the methodology of institutional arrangements for public policy, that allows to observe the dimensions of horizontal integration (intersectoriality), vertical integration (federative subsidiary), territorial and social participation, considering three stages of the cycle of public policies: designing, implementation and monitoring. The article describes the form of operation of the city network of laboratories of digital fabrication and its relationship with public administration and civil society. It shows how the articulation between actors allowed to implement the program and how the direction of the public policy could affect and be affected by disputes on assumptions around the debate of the “collaborative and solidarity practice” versus the market logic of “individual entrepreneurship”.