Code Work: Hacking across the US/Mexico Techno-Borderlands

Héctor Beltrán's book "Code Work" explores how Mexican and Latinx hackers apply concepts from coding to their lived experiences, merging ethnographic analysis with systems thinking to unpack the tensions faced by workers in a tech economy that stretches from villages in rural Mexico to Silicon Valley. He chronicles the transformative promise of hacking and the reality of a neoliberal capitalist economy divided and structured by the US/México border.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 14 November 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

In his book "Code Work," Héctor Beltrán delves into the personal strategies of Mexican and Latinx coders as they navigate the transnational economy of tech work. Through an ethnographic analysis combined with systems thinking, Beltrán explores how these hackers apply concepts from the code world to their lived experiences. He demonstrates how they employ techniques such as batch processing, loose coupling, iterative processing (looping), hacking, prototyping, and full-stack development in their daily social interactions, spanning various domains such as home, workplace, dating scene, and understanding of economy, culture, and geopolitics.

Beltrán's research, conducted over eight years in Mexico and the United States, includes participation in hackathons, hacker schools, and tech entrepreneurship conferences. He unpacks the challenges faced by workers in a tech economy that stretches from rural Mexico to Silicon Valley. He chronicles the tension between the transformative promise of hacking, which suggests that coding can reconfigure boundaries related to race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and the reality of a neoliberal capitalist economy divided and structured by the US/Mexico border.

Beltrán also examines the ways in which "innovative culture" is perceived as a solution to Mexico's social ills. He shows that when innovation is linked to technological development, other forms of development, such as social and economic equity, are often neglected. Through his highly original and comprehensive analysis, Beltrán bridges technology studies, anthropology of capitalism, and Latinx and Latin American studies, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of these fields.

Weight: 392g
Dimension: 156 x 235 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691245041