Labor Power in the Repair Shop

Circuits of Repair Between Solidarity and Poor Economy

Bibliographic Data

ID3834871
AuthorsGraziano (0000-0002-2666-8231, University of Rijeka, corresponding author), Valéria Graziano, Kim Trogal (0000-0002-3171-5442, University for the Creative Arts)
Year2023
Volume34
Issue2
Pages69-87
Publication date2023-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCapitalism Nature Socialism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-5752 • E-ISSN: 1548-3290
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10455752.2022.2140065
OpenAlexW4308473427
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited20

This paper presents the findings of comparative research into the labor, organizational and spatial practices of a new kind of hybrid civic spaces that we refer to as “social impact-driven repair shops.” These are an emerging typology of urban spaces dedicated to repaired and up-cycled items that also go beyond the functions of a traditional shop. Significantly, these shops are run not purely for economic reasons, but rather to position themselves as local, socio-political interventions aiming to confront the environmental impacts of waste, support ethical and affordable consumption, alongside providing new opportunities for employment. We focused our fieldwork (2017-2019) on three such “repair shops”: ReTuna Återbruksgalleria in Sweden, The Loop in the United Kingdom and RiMaflow in Italy. We discuss the differing labor and spatial practices taking place within each while highlighting some of the tensions that emerge, and the implications for some of the wider debates in repair studies, “green work” and circular economies. We conclude by identifying two divergent and potentially antagonistic circuits of repair which we name “repair as solidarity” and “repair as poor economy,” which we propose as a lens to better grasp the different logics underpinning the transition to circular economies

Civil engineering · Economics · Economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Solidarity · Typology · Underpinning · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Engineering · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Sustainable Supply Chain Management

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