Background notes:
- chair of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University
- writing focuses on labor and the work force, from the Western world of business and technology to sweatshop labor in the Third World
- research interests: labor and work; urban and suburban studies; intellectual history; social and political theory; science; ecology and technology; cultural studies
In this article, Ross is concerned with describing and offering a broader view of hacking than the view that has been established via media commentary (historically, hacking has been equated to body invasions--viruses and worms--and hackers have been depicted ironically as both menaces to society--"juvenile technodelinquents"--and as romantic counterculturalists--"maverick though nerdy cowboys"), causing public alarm and fear. Ross suggests that, rather than the exclusively white, masculine, and middle-class profile, there are wider social locations (such as that of the apprentice technical elite, female high-tech office, and shop-floor worker) and activities (what he terms backing, sabotaging, and reskilling) involved in hacking, that is, if we can recognize this counterculture and expressionism. Unfortunately, our fear makes us feel hopeless and passive (which may be a result of the shift from the 1960s "technology of folklore" to the 1990s "folklore of technology"). Ross advocates a "cultural studies" approach to technology, suggesting that cultural critics should embrace a hacker-like knowledge, "capable of reprogramming the social values that make room for new technologies." Ross believes in technoskepticism to move beyond an epistemology of technological determinism. He believes hackers disrupt the system, moving us closer to a technoliteracy.
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