Heike Weber

Repair, reuse and disposal are closely interlinked phenomena related to the lives and persistence of technologies. When technical artefacts become old and outworn, decisions have to be taken: is it necessary, worthwhile or even possible to maintain and repair or to reuse or dismantle them - or must one dispose of them? These decisions depend on factors such as the availability of second-hand markets, repair infrastructures and dismantling or disposal...

In the 'life' of technical objects and infrastructures repair and maintenance are central practices, both economically and culturally. This book foregrounds these activities, rarely examined until now, and looks into the forms of knowledge of different cultures of repair. In the process, the expertise and political ambitions of human actors receive as much consideration as the internal dynamics of the objects themselves. The articles focus on practices...