Paper short abstract:

In this research, hope and related themes are explored through an ongoing qualitative study of breakdown and repair in the public health care sector of the Gaza Strip.

Paper long abstract:

Recent work in STS has focused on hope (ordinary and/or fundamental), its connection to sociotechnical worlds, and related concepts of care, repair, maintenance, breakdown, frailty, and discard. In this research, hope and related themes are explored through an ongoing qualitative study of breakdown and repair in the public health care sector of the Gaza Strip. At the center of this study is a small team of ten people, split between Gaza and Canada, that had embarked in March 2023 on a collaboration to inventory, assess, and triage the repair of medical equipment in Gaza’s hospitals and clinics, and localize capacity for producing and installing 3D printed replacement parts for broken equipment. In the intervening months, conflict has destroyed most of the (already damaged) medical equipment and infrastructure, and the aims of the original collaboration and study are completely upended. But the team perseveres. Is it hope that breathes life into this work, or something else?

Using data generated from in-depth qualitative interviews, observations, and diaries and voice-notes, as well as transdisciplinary insights drawn from academic, artistic, and activist sources, this research reflects an exploration of the theme of hope. Where is hope found (if it is found) amidst crisis and despair? How does hope persist in a universe of lack? Does the concept of hope possess an animating energy and explanatory capacity here or, in tracing some of its contours and limits, will we find an opportunity for conceptual (re)engineering?