Repair, Brokenness, Breakthrough

Francisco Martínez is a Lecturer in the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, and member of the editorial team of the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures. He has edited several books and is the author of Remains of the Soviet Past in Estonia. An Anthropology of Repair, Forgetting and Urban Traces (UCL Press, 2018), which was awarded the Early Career Prize of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.

List of Illustrations



Introduction: Insiders’ Manual to Breakdown

Francisco Martínez



     Head, Hand, Heart: On Contradiction, Contingency and Repair

     Caitlin DeSilvey



Chapter 1. Underwater, Still Life: Multi-species Engagements with the Art Abject of a Wasted American Warship

Joshua O. Reno



     Beyond the Sparkle Zones

     Kathleen Stewart



Chapter 2. “Till Death Do Us Part”: The Making of Home Through Holding onto Objects

Tomás Errázuriz



     “The Lady is Not There”: Repairing Tita Meme as a Telecare User

     Tomás Sánchez Criado



Chapter 3. In the House of Un-Things: Decay and Deferral in a Vacated Bulgarian Home

Martin Demant Frederiksen



     Undisciplined Surfaces

     Mateusz Laszczkowski



Chapter 4. A Ride on the Elevator. Infrastructures of Brokenness and Repair in Georgia

Tamta Khalvashi



     Don’t Fix the Puddle: A Puddle Archive as Ethnographic Account of Sidewalk Assemblages

     Mirja Busch and Ignacio Farías



Chapter 5. What is in a Hole? Voids out of Place and Politics below the State in Georgia

Francisco Martínez



     Maintaining Whose Road?

     Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi



Chapter 6. Dirtscapes: Contest over Value, Garbage and Belonging in Istanbul

Aylin Yildirim Tschoepe



     Repairing Russia

     Michał Murawski



Chapter 7. Village Vintage in Southern Norway: Revitalisation and Vernacular Entrepreneurship in Culture Heritage Tourism

Sarah Holst Kjær



     A Story of Time Keepers

     Jérôme Denis and David Pontille



Chapter 8. Keeping Them “Swiss”. The Transfer and Appropriation of Techniques for Luxury Watch Repair in Hong-Kong

Hervé Munz



     Lost Battles of De-bobbling

     Magdalena Crăciun



Chapter 9. Small Mutinies in the Comfortable Slot: The New Environmentalism as Repair

Eeva Berglund



     Why Stories About the Broken Down Snowmobiles Can Teach You A Lot About the Life in the Arctic Tundra

     Aimar Ventsel



Chapter 10. The Imperative of Repair: Fixing Bikes – For Free

Simon Batterbury and Tim Dant



     Repair and Responsibility: The Art of Doris Salcedo

     Siobhan Kattago



Chapter 11. Repair and (Re)creation: Broken Relationships and a Path Forward for Austrian Holocaust Survivors

Katja Seidel



     Living Switches

     Wladimir Sgibnev



Chapter 12. Brokenness and Normality in Design Culture

Adam Drazin



     And Then You See Yourself Disappear (in Iceland)

     Jason Pine



Epilogue: This Mess We’re In, Or Part Of

Patrick Laviolette



Index