[Themaintainers] About maintenance and supplies

[Re Escardo]

I grew up in a small, isolated,  town in the Patagonian Andes, three times
a week the train arrived, the nearest city was 18 hours away,  500
kilometers of unpaved roads the alternative. The population was quite
self-sufficient, there was agriculture, livestock, logging an incipient
tourism and services of course. .Maintenance was vital to sustain their
activities and there was also an intense refurbishing activity, adapting or
inventing equipment and machinery, but accessing materials and spare parts
was difficult. All the maintainers had their own junkyard  but there was
not always what they needed in them, it was then common to resort to that
of a colleague, the junkyards  were a "common", not all: some were
properties jealously guarded by their owner, in which case they were denied
access to those of others, others had  justified blacklists, but in general
they were really "commons".
>From some readings I think something similar happen,  or happened in India
but I don't know if it was common in other cultures.
"The role of common junkyards in the maintenance and tinkering  in rural
communities", maybe a nice topic for an STS student.
Roberto E Escardo
PS: That happened 60 years ago (:
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