SIG : Maintenance and Philosophy of Technology
The Special Interest Group (SIG) Maintenance and Philosophy of Technology is now up and running. The chairs are Mark Thomas Young (University of Vienna) and Sanna Lehtinen (Aalto Univ.) and the SIG will run for two years. The goals of the group include not only stimulating discussion about maintenance among philosophers but also facilitating dialogue between philosophers of technology and scholars of maintenance and repair from other disciplines. All are therefore encouraged to take part, regardless of disciplinary background. The organizers look forward to welcoming a diverse range of perspectives on this important and exciting topic.
The schedule for 2023 is below. Anyone wishing to attend any of the talks should send an email to mark@markthomasyoung.net so that you can be added to the mailing list through which zoom links will be posted a week in advance.
SPT Maintenance & Philosophy of Technology SIG 2024 Schedule:
February 8th 2024 (18-1915 UTC+1) Claudia Eckert (The Open University)
“The Lifetime or Durability of Products”
March 14th 2024 (18-1915 UTC+1) Bridget Harvey (Chelsea College of Arts)
“Tending to: Material and Social Practices of Care
April 11th 2024 (18-1915 UTC+1) Laewoo Kang (Cornell University)
“Engineering Creativity Emerged in our local Reuse Center”
May 9th 2024 (18-1915 UTC+1) Lara Houston (Anglia Ruskin University)
“TBA”
June 13th 2024 (18-1915 UTC+1) Reka Gal (University of Toronto)
“SpaceX’s Starbase, or Breaking Things on the Rio Grande and Beyond”
August 8th 2024 (18-1915 UTC+1) Mark Thomas Young (University of Bergen)
“How the Golden Gate Bridge got its Nets: Maintenance and the Politics of Artifacts
September 12th 2024 (18-1915 UTC+1) Yuriko Saito (Rhode Island School of Design)
“The Aesthetics of Care: Practice in Everyday Life”
2023 Schedule – Maintenance and Philosophy of Technology :
February 1st 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): David Pontille & Jerome Denis (Paris School of Mines) “The Times of Maintenance”
March 9th 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): Zachary Pirtle (George Washington U) “What do Maintainers Know and How do they Know it? Revised Perspectives on Engineering
April 13th 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): Steven Vogel (Denison U) “Maintenance and the Humanness of Infrastructure”
May 11th 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): Madeleine Ley (TU Delft) “Maintaining a Careless Culture: Sedimentation, Values and Retail”
August 10th 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): Chris Henke (Colgate U) “Infrastructures, Repair and Power: The Persistence of Sociotechnical Systems and the Challenge of a Sustainable Future”
September 14th 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): Amy Meissner (independent) “Repair as Accompaniment: Applying an Ethic of Care to the Craft of Repair.”
October 12th 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): Guru Madhaven (NASEM) “The Greatest Show on Earth: Revaluing Maintenance”
November 9th 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): Andy Russel (SUNY) & Lee Vinsel (Virginia Tech) “After Eight Years of the Maintainers”
December 14th 2023 (18-1915 UTC+1): Philip Scranton (Rutgers U) “Spare Parts: Conceptualizing a Modern Problem”