This might be a bit in the weeds, but I'm a relative newcomer to Linux and I can't stop thinking about its socio-political implications.

It seems like Linux and FOSS generally have serious political weight, and not just in the sense of making it possible to, for example, circumvent censorship or communicate anonymously (or close to anonymously). What I'm thinking of is more that right now, there is free software which in many cases is as good or better than its proprietary counterpart, and which is being developed in large part as an unpaid hobby.

Is anyone aware of any scholars that study this sort of thing? I did some cursory googling and it doesn't seem like there are a ton of people writing seriously about this angle.