Repair Cafés – Applying the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to Understand Repair Initiatives as Elements of Social Innovation

As civil society initiatives, repair cafés make an important contribution to the circular economy and to social change. With more than 3,500 worldwide, the number of repair cafés in practice is high, but the conceptual basis for their analysis is still underdeveloped. Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which emerged in the 1980s from the sociology of science and technology, is today one of the key theories of the knowledge society. It differs from other theories in its close conceptual interweaving of human and technical elements, and its focus on relationships and constellations that make an actor act. However, ANT has so far given little attention to the topic of repair. This paper explores the potential of ANT for the analysis of repair cafés as technology-related social phenomena. With its lens on changing constellations of actors that mutually influence each other, ANT is found to be a powerful analytical approach for understanding the characteristics of specific repair initiatives, their challenges and success factors. This is relevant more broadly to the relationship between technology and society, including with view to the adoption of circular economy practices across society.