The fixing I: Repair as prefigurative politics

Abstract

In this chapter I will examine a series of instances how repair has been reframed in design discourse – the total of the conversations that are had about design – over the decade that followed the 2007 financial crisis. This period saw the launch of a number of initiatives including networks, and regular repair events in which expert ‘fixers’ meet members of the public to provide both ‘entertainment, empowerment ... and, ultimately, enlightenment through guided disassembly of your broken stuff’ (Fixit Clinic n.d.). Geographically, these initiatives found a hatching ground in Western Europe and North America, even though they celebrated and re-contextualized language and methods adopted from repair traditions that developed over a longer period and in a less vocal fashion in scarcity economies including Cold-War Eastern Europe, Latin America and South