The Politics of Collective Repair. Examining object-relations in a Postwork Society
- Submitting institution
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Coventry University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 19386980
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1080/09502386.2017.1298638
- Title of journal
- Cultural Studies
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 634
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 5
- ISSN
- 0950-2386
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- March
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This journal article is concerned with the politics of collective repair spaces, understood as a sites of post-digital cultures that disrupt current relationships with electronic equipment and other quotidian objects increasingly black-boxed due to software protection licenses. Repair collectivities are instead supporting the re-valuation of mending skills, the social reproduction of maintenance as a long standing feminist concern, and the pedagogy of tinkering/reverse engineering. They also foster different critical relations with material and technical objects and amongst repairers, away from careless disposability and constant upgrading.
The methods used to study repair collectives in this article is enacted by exploring three case studies. These are: The Repair Association as a case of lobbying and rights; iFixit, an example of an online community-based resource for DIY; and Repair Cafés and Restart Parties, both ‘public sites of repair’.
From this article, the authors were invited to co-edit a special issue of the journal Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization on ‘Repair Matters’ (2019). The research has also been presented at the AHRC Network event SmART Cities and Waste (April 2017); at ‘Collaborative Economies: From Sharing to Caring’, 8th International Conference on Communities & Technologies, (Troyes, June 2017); at the School of Architecture, Stockholm (February 2018); and at the Centre for Critical Thought, University of Kent (March 2018).
In November 2017, the authors secured a UCA Canterbury Research Grant for a new phase of the project to carry out fieldwork at community repair shops across Europe, including sites in Sweden, Italy, Belgium and UK. The research has also been disseminated in the blogpost ‘The Return of the Repair Shop: Between Consumerism and Social Reproduction’ on The Maintainers website, one of the most active discussion platforms in the repair movement (November 2017).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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