<div dir="ltr">Hey, everybody!<div><br></div><div>A team of researchers at Lancaster University (UK) and Linkoping University (Sweden) have started a neat project on repair and values, and they are looking to interview folks. I think MANY people on this list would make great interviewees for them, so consider reaching out to them. More detail and contact info below. </div><div><br></div><div>Hope y'all are doing well in these crazy and troubling times. </div><div><br></div><div>Lee<br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black">Our team from Lancaster University in the UK,
and Linkoping University, Sweden, is <b><i>investigating the role of repair
within ideas of circular economy, and sustainability, from a cultural
perspective.</i></b> Policy makers tend to see repair is merely a desirable,
but instrumental, tool for extending product life and reducing material
resource throughput. We think that this an incomplete view, and one which could
lead to unintended consequences or rebound effects. We think it critical that
research and policy better consider <i>why
humans engage in repair (and maintenance) activities</i>, and how we engage
with the subjects of those activities.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black"><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black">We are currently <b><i>trying to
identify practitioners and scholars of repair who would be willing to be
interviewed about the norms and values that are involved in their repair work</i></b>,
and about their aspirations, expectations and fears regarding repair. Our
geographic scope is global, and we’d particularly like to reach beyond Europe
and the US. We have particular interests in including those whose repair work
addresses restoration of ecosystems, or reconciliation (repair of
relationships), as well as those whose work focuses on material things like
buildings, consumer goods or cultural artefacts. We are aware </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black">of diverse and
rich cultural understandings of repair, across domains like historic building
conservation, ecosystem restoration, medicine, dispute settlement and more. And
even considering repair of material artefacts of functional use, it’s clear
that for many practitioners – especially in makerspaces or repair cafes -
repair has much to do with questions of attachment or identity, for example. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black"><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black">We want to try to
capture some of that richness by <b><i>talking with people who are willing to
reflect on what repair means to them</i></b> (whether as a scholar, or a
practitioner, or a user of repair services). We’d like to talk to people
involved in right-to-repair campaigns, or working in/running repair cafes, or
working with post-conflict reconciliation, truth commissions, or alternative
dispute resolution (all contributing to ‘repair of relationships’), or working
on rewilding, ecosystem restoration or species reintroduction. We’re also
really keen to try to pick up some cultural diversity: it’s immediately clear
that repair has different cultural emanations in different countries, but we
know very little about how it varies across huge swathes of the world. So we’re
interested <b><i>to talk to people that are within, or have heritage in, as wide a range
of cultures as possible</i></b>.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black"><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:black">Interviews would be carried out by
phone/video-conference, take about 1 hour, and be recorded, transcribed and
anonymised for subsequent analysis. The methodology has been approved by the
University’s ethics committee. In a subsequent phase of the project we plan to
hold deliberative workshops, bringing together practitioners, scholars and
policy makers. The interviews will not only provide valuable data for our
research, but will also help us design the deliberative workshops and,
ultimately, advise policy makers. <b>If you’d be interested in being
interviewed for our project, please get in touch, and feel free to suggest
suitable dates and times in the coming 2-3 months.</b> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">If
you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, or my colleague
Johan Niskanen, by email or phone</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="ES" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Duncan McLaren: +44-739 430 6068, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="mailto:d.mclaren@lancaster.ac.uk" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span lang="ES" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">d.mclaren@lancaster.ac.uk</span></a></span><span lang="ES" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="SV" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Johan Niskanen: +46-700 896 591, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="mailto:johan.niskanen@liu.se" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span lang="SV" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">johan.niskanen@liu.se</span></a></span><span lang="SV" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">More information on the project: </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://liu.se/en/research/repair-in-circular-economy" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">https://liu.se/en/research/repair-in-circular-economy</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Co-Director<div>The Maintainers</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>