Contribution short abstract:

This paper addresses repair and reuse of everyday electronic appliances. It contrasts material practices and forms of revaluation at two types of repair spaces: professional workshops and activist communities, offering situated understandings of how “upcycling” might work in practice.

Contribution long abstract:

This paper addresses repair and reuse of electronic appliances, presenting preliminary results of an ethnographic study in the city of Barcelona. It contrasts material practices and forms of revaluation at two types of spaces: refurbishment and resale workshops, many of whom managed by extra-communitarian migrants, and “restarters” and other activist communities and networks for the right to repair. I start from the premise that repair continues to be a means of gaining a living, despite the triple programmed obsolescence (with respect to function, quality and convenience) and lack of spare parts. Second-hand smartphones and other obsolete ITC devices are moved within local and transnational circuits of both commerce and care. Practices and circulations are often hidden, they might be partly informal and are not usually described as being about the circular economy or upcycling, which contrasts with the narrative versality of the activist scene. The paper discusses how different paths towards “upcycling” might work in practice.