[Themaintainers] Talk: Tom Fisher (NTU) "Repairing Things Repairs People"

[mark young]

Dear all,

We’d like to announce the next session of the SPT special interest group on
Maintenance and Philosophy of Technology on Thursday 11th August (1800-1915
UTC+1). In this session, we have the pleasure of welcoming Tom Fisher
(Nottingham Trent University) who will be exploring the nature of repair
from philosophical, sociological and ethnographic perspectives. If you’d
like to receive the zoom link for the talk please email me at
mark at markthomasyoung.net. The schedule for the remainder of the year
follows below,

Mark

*Repairing Things Repairs People: an Idea of Disorderly Repair*

Tom Fisher (Nottingham Trent University)

Thursday 11th August (1800-1915 UTC+1)

*Abstract:* ‘Repairing things repairs people’ is the principle that
underlies this chapter, which connects it to the subject of the book –
repair has implications for personhood. Noting the current interest in
repair in popular culture and academia, as well as the broad scope of the
topic, we approach it from the perspective of individual material
engagement. This leads to a discussion of the place skill has in repair
practices that connects it to a post-cognitivist approach to human knowing.
The chapter moves on to think about the social location of repair
practices, reviewing several ethnographic studies of repair and analysing
how individual skilled people and organisations can stimulate repair in the
context of concern for the environmental impact of over-consumption. Via a
brief excursion that takes in Heidegger’s *zuhanden* / *vorhanden* concept,
to pinpoint the moment when the need to repair an item becomes clear, the
chapter notes the benefits that accrue to individuals from the calming,
mindful actions that repairing often involves. It finishes by briefly
noting that repair aligns with the ethics of technology that Hans Jonas’s
developed, based in the principle of responsible actions.


*Maintenance & Philosophy of Technology SIG - Schedule 2022:*

September 8th 2022      (18-1915 UTC+1)
Cristina Bernabeau & Jesus Vega Encabo (Autonomous U Madrid) “The Privilege
of Maintenance and Repair in shaping and understanding our Artifactual World

October 13th 2022         (18-1915 UTC+1)
Taylor Stone (U Bonn) and Aimee Van Wynesberghe (U Bonn) “On the Things of
the Internet: AI for Maintenance and the Maintenance of AI

November 10th 2022     (18-1915 UTC+1)
Sanna Lehtinen (Aalto Univ.) “Aesthetic Values in the Maintenance of Urban
Technologies”

December 8th 2022        (18-1915 UTC+1)
Simon Penny (UCI) "Making Maintenance Possible Again: Finding Ethical and
Sustainable Paths Through Consumerism, Disposability and Inbuilt
Obsolescence"

(In order to avoid confusion regarding the timing of the talks - the
following table clarifies when the talks begin in different locations)

Amsterdam 7:00pm
London 6:00pm
Toronto (New York) 1:00pm
San Francisco 10:00am
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