Conference Program: Repairing Technology – Fixing Society?

International conference “Repairing Technology – Fixing Society?”, 13-14 October 2022 

Organised by Thomas Hoppenheit, Stefan Krebs & Rebecca Mossop 

The event will be held on-site (Venue: Halle des Poches à Fontes, Belval Campus); no online broadcast is planned. If you want to participate please send an email to: vanessa.napolitano@uni.lu 

 

Program 

Thursday, 13 October 

9.15h Arrival of participants 

9.45-10h Welcome by Stefan Krebs (University of Luxembourg, PI REPAIR) 

10-11.00h Section 1: Repairing Infrastructures 

Chair: Stefan Krebs 

Jacob Ward (Maastricht University): Maintenance and Political Economy: Fixing Submarine Cables to Reinvent Transatlantic Capitalism 

Rebecca Mossop (University of Luxembourg): Communicating Smoothly: Maintaining the Luxembourg Telephone Network 

11.00-11.30h Coffee break 

11.30-12.30h Section 1 (continued): Repairing Infrastructures 

Madison Snider (University of Washington): Repairing “Smart” Infrastructures: Sustainability Orientations in Tension Between Infrastructuring Publics 

Tijana Rupcic (Central European University, Vienna): Iron Gates: The Study on Maintenance of the Hydro and Navigation System 

12.30-13.30h Lunch break 

13.30-14.30h Visit Blast Furnace A 

14.30-15.30h Section 2: Repair Ethnographies 

Chair: Thomas Hoppenheit 

Anna Harris (Maastricht University): Tinkering and Innovation in Medicine: Ethnographic Experiments for Studying Repair and Maintenance 

Anaïs Bloch (Geneva University of Art and Design): Materialize the Thought: the Production of Research Zines as a Tool in Studying Repair and Maintenance 

15.30-16.00h Coffee break 

16.00-17.00h Section 2 (continued): Repair Ethnographies 

Chris Hesselbein (Politecnico di Milano): Maintaining Shoes/Feet 

Ödül Bozkurt (University of Sussex Business School): Repair Work as Craft and Career: Insights from the Apprenticeship Journey in Classic Car Restoration 

17.15-18.15h Keynote Christopher Henke (Colgate University): Repair, Maintenance, and Infrastructure Studies: The Promise (and Perils?) of an “Emerging Field” 

18.30-19.15h Reception 

 

 

Friday, 14 October 

9.00-10.30h Section 3: Repairing Objects 

Chair: Rebecca Mossop 

Thomas Hoppenheit (University of Luxembourg): The Politics of Everyday Repair Opportunities 

Thomas Schütz (Stuttgart University): Wasted Time / The Emergence of a Throwaway Culture Using the Example of Clocks and Watches 

Yingchuan Yang (Columbia University): Modest Technology: Repairing Radio Sets in Socialist China 

10.30-11.00h Coffee break 

11.00-12.00h Section 4: Repairing Hard- and Software 

Chair: Stefan Krebs 

Olga Usachova (University of Padova): The broken world of refugee apps? Towards sustainability of mobile applications 

Abdallah Zouhairi (University Hassan II. Casablanca): Repair and Democratisation of Distance Learning During Covid-19 

12-13h Lunch break 

13.00-14.00h Section 4 (continued): Repairing Hard- and Software 

Matthias Heymann (Aarhus University): Maintenance and Repair as Innovation? Software Systems and the Case of Climate Models 

Ginevra Sanvitale (Eindhoven University of Technology): Project ATENA: Born to be Outmoded. Emotions and the Technopolitical Construction of Obsolescence in the History of Computing 

14.00h Closing remarks Stefan Krebs