How should we understand alternative social media and open-source technologies that seek to challenge the dominance of Big Tech? Are these ethical substitutes for monopolistic platforms and technological infrastructures, or “alternative” in the sense we might talk of alternative forms of culture? Here we offer new perspective on these questions by conceptualizing alternative tech through Bourdieu’s theories of cultural production and distinctive consumption. Building on the work of Holm, Coleman and others, we explore the “techno-critical disposition” through a case study of A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers (ATNOFS), arguing this is manifested primarily as “critical craftiness,” or hacker aesthetics in a critical register. Finally, we consider how ATNOFS represents a “distinctive” path to the wider adoption of alternative platforms, as well as how the techno-critical disposition may be reconfiguring legitimacy in the broader field of technology production.

中文翻译：

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区别和替代技术：探索技术关键配置

我们应该如何理解寻求挑战大型科技主导地位的替代社交媒体和开源技术？这些是垄断平台和技术基础设施的道德替代品，还是我们可能谈论的文化替代形式意义上的“替代”？在这里，我们通过布迪厄的文化生产和独特消费理论对替代技术进行概念化，为这些问题提供了新的视角。在 Holm、Coleman 等人的工作的基础上，我们通过女权主义服务器遍历网络 (ATNOFS) 的案例研究来探讨“技术批判性倾向”，认为这主要表现为“批判性狡猾”或黑客美学。一个关键寄存器。最后，我们考虑 ATNOFS 如何代表更广泛采用替代平台的“独特”路径，以及技术关键配置如何在更广泛的技术生产领域重新配置合法性。