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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
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Welcome by the organisers and introduction of participants
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Session 1: Philosophy of Repair
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| 11.00
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Technology in Process: Maintenance and the Lives of Artifacts
Mark Thomas Young, University of Bergen
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| 11.45
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Coffee break
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Session 2: Maintaining High-Tech (and Power)
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| 12.00
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Innovation in Maintenance: Technical Achievements of Cleanroom Operators and Maintainers in Korean Semiconductor Production Line,1980s-2000s
Sangwoon Yoo, Hanbat National University
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| 12.45
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The Brazilian "Electronics Paradise:" Repair Work, Expertise, and Global Connections in Santa Efigênia
Liliana Gil, New School for Social Research, New Yor
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| 13.30
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Lunch break
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Session 3: Repair Practices
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| 14.30
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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
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| 15.15
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Gendered Spaces of Repair, Maintenance, and Knowledge Production in Argentina,Twentieth Century
Yovanna Pineda, University of Central Florida
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Day 2: Friday, 3 September, from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm (Online via Webex)
| 10.00
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Summary of Day 1
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Session 1: Visual Inventory of Repair
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| 10.30
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Mobile Repair Cultures: from Informal Repair to Silent Innovation, the Smartphone Case
Anaïs Bloch, HEAD-Genève
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| 11.15
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Coffee break
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Session 2: Maintaining Infrastructures
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| 11.30
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Between Old and New: “Modernizing”, Maintaining and Repairing Pneumatic Tube Systems
Laura Meneghello, Siegen University
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| 12.15
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Cultures and Costs of Maintenance. The Rise of Creosote and its Precarious Legacy
Martin Meiske, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
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| 13.00
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Lunch break
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| 14.00
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Imagining the Unmaintained Object: Industrial Transportation Infrastructure Decline as Narrative Symbol in the American Rust Belt
Amanda McMillan Lequieu, Drexel University
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Session 3: Maintaining Everyday Repair Opportunities
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| 14.45
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The Decline of Repair Businesses? Luxembourg’s Repair Sector, 1971-1985
Stefan Krebs and Thomas Hoppenheit, Luxembourg University
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| 15.30
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Closing remarks
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| 16.00
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End of the workshop
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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)
© Photothèque de la Ville de Luxembourg (Photographer: Pol Aschman) |
