Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Hackathons As Co-Optation Ritual: Socializing Workers And Institutionalizing Innovation In The “New” Economy, Sharon Zukin, Max Papadantonakis

Publications and Research

Hackathons, time-bounded competitive events where participants write computer code and build apps, have become a popular means of socializing tech students and workers to produce “innovation” despite little promise of material reward. Although they offer participants opportunities for learning new skills and face-to-face networking, and set up interaction rituals that create an emotional “high,” potential advantage is even greater for the events’ corporate sponsors, who use them to outsource work, crowdsource innovation, and enhance their reputation. Ethnographic observations and informal interviews carried out at seven public hackathons held in New York City during the course of a single school year …