International workshop
Over the past fifteen years, maintenance and repair practices have gained increasing academic attention, but the literature in the fields of history and philosophy of technology, science and technology studies, sociology and anthropology of technology is still focused on invention and newness. Complementing recent calls for a history of technology-in-use (D. Edgerton), broken-world thinking (S. Jackson) and a history of technology “after innovation” (A. Russell & L. Vinsel), we are working on the first systematic historical investigation of repair and maintenance in a Western consumer society.
In the spirit of chasing this turn, we have invited international scholars to present their own take on the histories of maintenance and repair. These range from considering the philosophical implications of our studies, to understanding societies through their creative interaction with technology, or the maintenance of large technological systems, and beyond. For a detailed picture, please see the program below. Together we will discuss the challenges of the field, share our fascination for technology and people, and close the gap one story at a time.
Programme:
Day 1: Thursday, 2 September 2021, from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm (Online via Webex)
10.00
Welcome by the organisers and introduction of participants
Session 1: Philosophy of Repair
11.00
Technology in Process: Maintenance and the Lives of Artifacts
Mark Thomas Young, University of Bergen
11.45
Coffee break
Session 2: Maintaining High-Tech (and Power)
12.00
Innovation in Maintenance: Technical Achievements of Cleanroom Operators and Maintainers in Korean Semiconductor Production Line,1980s-2000s
Sangwoon Yoo, Hanbat National University
12.45
The Brazilian « Electronics Paradise: » Repair Work, Expertise, and Global Connections in Santa Efigênia
Liliana Gil, New School for Social Research, New Yor
13.30
Lunch break
Session 3: Repair Practices
14.30
Makeshift Engineering: Repairing Machines, Crafting Knowledge and Maintaining Relationships with Locally Manufactured Small Wind Turbine
Kostas Latoufis and Aristotle Tympas, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
15.15
Gendered Spaces of Repair, Maintenance, and Knowledge Production in Argentina,Twentieth Century
Yovanna Pineda, University of Central Florida
Day 2: Friday, 3 September, from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm (Online via Webex)
10.00
Summary of Day 1
Session 1: Visual Inventory of Repair
10.30
Mobile Repair Cultures: from Informal Repair to Silent Innovation, the Smartphone Case
Anaïs Bloch, HEAD-Genève
11.15
Coffee break
Session 2: Maintaining Infrastructures
11.30
Between Old and New: “Modernizing”, Maintaining and Repairing Pneumatic Tube Systems
Laura Meneghello, Siegen University
12.15
Cultures and Costs of Maintenance. The Rise of Creosote and its Precarious Legacy
Martin Meiske, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
13.00
Lunch break
14.00
Imagining the Unmaintained Object: Industrial Transportation Infrastructure Decline as Narrative Symbol in the American Rust Belt
Amanda McMillan Lequieu, Drexel University
Session 3: Maintaining Everyday Repair Opportunities
14.45
The Decline of Repair Businesses? Luxembourg’s Repair Sector, 1971-1985
Stefan Krebs and Thomas Hoppenheit, Luxembourg University
15.30
Closing remarks
16.00
End of the workshop
To join our (online) exchange, please register to vanessa.napolitano@uni.lu. The Webex link will be given 1 or 2 days prior to the event.
Organisers: Stefan Krebs, Rebecca Mossop and Thomas Hoppenheit (Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, C²DH)