Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation

Prototype Nation explores how China's manufacturing and "copycat" production have been transformed from a hindrance to a key asset in the global tech imagination. Silvia Lindtner's research reveals how a growing distrust in Western models of progress and development shaped the rise of the global maker movement and China's vision as a "new frontier" of innovation.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2020
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Prototype Nation provides a comprehensive transnational examination of how the promise of democratized innovation and entrepreneurial life has influenced China's governance and global reputation. Through meticulous historical analysis and ethnographic detail, Silvia Lindtner unveils how a growing skepticism towards Western models of progress and development, particularly after the financial crisis of 2007-8, shaped the emergence of the global maker movement and the perception of China as a "new frontier" of innovation. Lindtner's research spans over a decade, encompassing extensive fieldwork in experimental workspaces such as makerspaces, coworking spaces, innovation hubs, hackathons, and startup weekends across China, the United States, Africa, Europe, Taiwan, and Singapore, as well as key sites of technology investment and industrial production, including tech incubators, corporate offices, and factories. By delving into the ideals of the maker movement, which aim to intervene in social and economic structures, Lindtner demonstrates how entrepreneurial living exerts a profound influence on governance, education, policy, investment, and urban redesign, ultimately normalizing the persistence of sexism, racism, colonialism, and labor exploitation.

Prototype Nation reveals that by focusing on the bodies and spaces that foster entrepreneurial life, technology can be liberated from the seemingly endless cycle of promise and violence. The book's cover image, courtesy of Cao Fei, Vitamin Cr, serves as a visual representation of this transformative potential.

Weight: 488g
Dimension: 156 x 234 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691207674