Back to the Roots

One of the most important stakeholders in any action or implementation are the people directly affected by the changes i.e. the local population. Thus, it is easy to understand why they should be included in discourses while working out a solution. Their knowledges include expertise of the geography of the area as well as the knowledge of sacred texts, religious doctrines and traditional spiritual practices that exist. 

Local populations, especially those who have lived on the land for generations, have a deep understanding of the land as well as the culture. They can study trends and shifts in framework more efficiently. However, when seen only through a global lens, this ground-centric approach does not get its due and it leads to lack of involvement of the community. This exclusion of the local puts the already marginalized at a further socio-economic disadvantage, and reinforces the already existing divides (north-south, rich-poor). When seen within the ambit of ICT, this leads to waste, or rather inappropriate use, of natural resources with a lot at stake but very little to gain for indigenous populations.

This pattern can be illustrated by a series of historical examples intended to suggest its scope. The possibilities are many and varied. As an instance, Gandhi practiced and advocated "Ahimsa," the non-violent struggle for truth, inspiring and his part of the anti-colonialist movement in India to center on that strategy. Derived from Hindu tradition, Ahimsa applied to all features of their lives, from confrontations with the British to the ways they lived and ate and worked together. Similarly, Martin Luther King, working within the Christian tradition, was able to find the religious inspiration for a similar approach to non-violence while basing it in the US Civil Rights movement. Thich Nhat Hanh and his fellow Buddhist monks used self-suffering in the Gandhian tradition to oppose the war in Vietnam. The strategy continues in use at the state level in the struggle between Tibetans under the leadership of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government. Their practice is both a strategic imperative and an injunction which works well since the leaders adapted it according to their contexts. A narrative on the opposite end of the spectrum could be the citizen protests in Brazil against the destruction of Amazon, which could also be seen as one of the most severe but not uncommon protests by the indigenous populations against foreign and invasive forces.

Salvage computing has been described in several LIMITS papers in the past and together they provide insight into the applications, obstacles and potentials of this pattern. Barath Raghavan and Justin Ma discussed future scenarios involving resource and energy scarcity and point to reuse of hardware and software in computer networks as a way to avoid the construction of too many new devices with high embodied energy costs. They argue for networking technology to follow the principles of Appropriate Technology, including making devices simple, composed of local materials and easy to repair [26]. As Barath Raghavan and Shaddi Hasan point out in their paper Macroscopically Sustainable Networking: On Internet Quines, a salvage Internet is one way to drastically decrease the Internet’s dependencies, removing the need for manufacturing and transportation, as it uses only common, locally available components. They acknowledge it cannot be sustained in the long-term because it relies on functioning, or at least repairable, hardware [25]. 

In Towards a World of Fixers, Josh Lepawsky addresses this problem and identifies barriers and enablers to third party repair in the contexts of design, manufacturing, policy, and practice. One of the barriers Lepawsky mentions is planned obsolescense —the design for reduced service life. Ways manufacturers achieve this is through making the replacement, repair or upgrade of components difficult or impossible. An example is for instance the loss of user-detachable batteries, and using adhesives or soldering components to boards instead of using screws and bolts, and if screws and bolts are used, using proprietary ones. Next to that he mentions the use of restricting end-user license agreements and the criminalization of third-party repair. Roura et al. analyse the eReuse project in Barcelona and identify the association of reuse with poverty as an obstacle, as well as bookkeeping practices that devalue devices faster than their actual lifespan, creating the idea of valueless items that will trigger them to purchase new devices instead [24].

Enabling factors he identifies are legislation and regulation requiring manufacturers to make devices repairable, with as a first step advocacy for right-to-repair legislation. Only after these changes in design, manufacturing, and inherently the business models of hardware producers, have materialized, can there be a thriving network of independent, DIY maintenance and repair practitioners [13]. Brian Sutherland mentions the importance of enforcing manufacturers to use universal components, connection standards and interchangeable parts such as USB to ensure current and future compatibility between devices [37]. If repairing is not an option, reusing a device in a different way than its intended purpose, is another path, as pointed out by Remy and Huang. They also mention the enabling of a shift in lifestyle choices, one from wanting to possess the latest gadget to one in which it is desirable to own a device for a long time [27]. Blevis et al. call this New Luxury, where products are considered luxurious because they are of high quality and standard, not because they are expensive [3]. Heirloom computing is a related term, that expresses the desire for long lasting computing hardware that could be passed down from generation to generation [16].

Enabling factors on the software-side are discussed by for instance Devine Lu Linvega, one of the voices of the solarpunk merveilles.town Mastodon instance. They propose that creating software targeting old hardware might be a better approach than a focus on low-power, single-purpose computers, that may have lower energy consumption during their lifetime, but do require manufacturing [15]. Gemini protocol creator Solderpunk thinks along similar lines when writing: "the real long-term future of computing consists of figuring out how to make the best possible use we can out of the literal millions of devices which already exist". He argues that operating systems that still run on older hardware, and the software running on those operating systems, are very valuable things to develop and to maintain. He lists several things developers and users can do as 'good solarpunk praxis', with at the very top not buying any new devices, and instead investing in user-servicable used ones. He advises developers to invest in an (at least) 10 year old device and test their software on it, to push back against software 'progress' deprecating still functioning hardware. He also advises to support projects which develop software running on older or unsupported hardware, and those trying to ‘jailbreak’ locked down devices to make them more general purpose; by donating hardware, writing code, writing documentation or donating money [36].

Enabling factors in the DIY field of repair are skillsharing, documentation of repairs and the sharing of that documentation. In their paper Unplanned Obsolescence: Hardware and Software After Collapse, Jang et al. emphasize the need for social networks and institutions of people interested in computer repair, as they might prove invaluable for sourcing parts and maintaining the skills needed for successful repair culture [11]. There are currently several online communities involved in documenting repairs to consumer electronics, including computers and smartphones; the most prominent example is iFixit, a website with over 80,000 documented repairs (Fig. 3). The website also sells commonly needed materials, tools and spare parts. The Restart Project, a UK based organisation that started in 2013, is organising repair events across the UK and internationally. The project also lobbies for the Right to Repair in the UK and Europe. Lastly, in the Netherlands, many city councils have started repair cafés that welcome citizens to bring their broken devices in for repair in community centers. The Repair Café initiative was started in 2009 by journalist and activist Martine Postma in Amsterdam. Today, there are about 2000 cafés worldwide. Next to these grassroots initiatives, there is also a lively commercial smartphone repair culture consisting of small shops, also extending into hacklabs and fablabs, with an associated ecosystem of sourcing spare parts and skill sharing; unauthorized, sometimes very creative and often illegal interventions [20].

Scholar Jennifer Gabrys describes salvage as a practice of engaging with the discarded "with an eye to transforming what is exhausted and wasted into renewed resources" [8]. She adds the important observation that this process also means engaging with the conditions that led to disrepair; planned obsolescence, the rapid upgrade-or-die cycle of the tech industry and consumer capitalism in general, not to mention the impact of this on the Global South, which is receiving the West’s e-waste and suffers the pollution caused by the production of the Global North’s technology. The Right to Repair campaign engages with one of these conditions: planned obsolescence. The campaign was started in 2019, with as long term goal to remove the barriers to repair products, and in the short term ensure the EU introduces a scoring system on repairability as part of the existing energy label for all energy-consuming products. The campaign gathers 40 organizations from more than 16 European countries. Thanks to the successes of the Right to Repair movement in Europe, repair practices are gaining momentum there. 

Out of precarity, and because of the ongoing impact of colonialism, there are very rich and creative repair practices in existence—Jugaad, Gambiarra, Resolver, Shanzhai. Because of the sudden attention in the West to e-waste and supply chains, these practices of improvisation are appropriated and fetishized, yet as Ginger Nolan argues, the romanticizing of the inventiveness of these practices can function as an excuse to keep economic instability and precarity in place [21]. Instead, a focus on reviving historical, local repair practices that have become scarce or have disappeared could be a way to revive not only more sustainable practices using locally sourced material, but also reviving the skills that cannot be transmitted digitally, as well as traditional forms of negotiating value through the process of fixing, also things that cannot be quantified, such as the social role of repairers within a community [18].

Considering today’s urgent need to shrink consumption of resources, it is surprising to see that from the list—reduce, reuse, repair and recycle—the last one is the most wasteful, yet has gotten most attention. This emphasis on recycling can only be explained because the other three point to economic degrowth, an unpopular topic in mainstream politics to date. This shows the importance of a political agenda, next to design and praxis. 

When designing for a known person or group, infrastructure and access to technology may be prescribed. Typically the context must be understood in order to know what is suitable. For example Australia has a high level of smartphone market penetration, and if targeting residential gardens, there are a likelihood of highcspeed Internet access. This would allow for the use of rich media and high levels of interconnectivity.

Communities on the other hand, such as Northey Street City Farm or Permablitz Brisbane, are limited in time and money to invest in additional technology or infrastructure. In these instances it is important to understand what technology community members already use or what infrastructure is already in place, and how is it currently used. With this understanding, the ability to repurpose, or make use of technology as part of a design, will become clear. Understanding the role technology plays in the lives of gardeners, and when they have access to technology, will result in a more inclusive design (Heitlinger et al., 2013).

(note that the Discussion is still in work.....)

Street Music blurs the distinction between producer and consumer of music as well as the distinction between formal and informal venues for music production and consumption. 

Although street bands, including many of those found at Honk Fests, can be found at protests (including the Infernal Noise Machine (image below) that supported the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999), their actions are often political to a large degree by virtue of their publicness in an era of electronic or other formalized or mediated forms of music consumption. 

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-MLvzLlou4 for Environmental Encroachment's performance of Hashia.

Thanks to a member of the Bucharest Drinking Team and to Bob of Environmental Encroachment for their thoughts on the current breed of "new street bands" including their history and motivation. 

In response to the failures of 'top-down' approaches to development, a shift towards emphasizing participation and empowerment have begun to make their way into the mainstream of development practice. This move toward "bottom-up," "farmer-to-farmer," and "grassroots" communication has been a fundamental reorientation. Following, the 70s and 80s, years often associated with the dark ages of development a new light has come about through alternative practices that seek to employ the community’s themselves in defining their needs, mapping out there assets and coming to terms with their own liabilities.

Through a variety of participatory processes both community members and development professionals have had the opportunity to jointly design community improvement schemes that are both appropriate to the community's needs and wants, as well sustainable and empowering.

As a result of relative success, the role of the community animator has become an increasingly important component for enabling this process of cooperation and participation between the development practitioner and the community members themselves. In some ways the animator acts as both initiator and on-going advocate for his or her community's development through regular open communication with both community members and the representative staff working in the area.

In the past highly educated teams of researchers and development field workers would enter a community and employ any number of assessment tools to identify community needs. Some of which were participatory in nature (see Power Research pattern). Upon return to their offices these assessments would be used to design various projects ranging from indoor lavatories, to treadle pumps, to community telecenters. In many cases it was shown that these projects failed to support the kind of long-term growth in people’s livelihoods they were thought to bring. Rather than looking at what the community wanted or needed from their cultural and social point of reference; these professionals designed projects relative to their point of reference.

Instead of persisting with this paradigm, NGOs such as the Institute for Integrated Rural Development (IIRD) have pursued vigorous development campaigns in Bangladesh. In this example the community animator has become a central agent for helping to identifiy and express the needs and desires of a community, as well as initiating and supporting change to include, informal education, ideas for micro-enterprise, and even supporting the creation of women’s self-help groups that have enable a number of women in rural areas to gain access to credit and thus empower them to pursue economic generating activities.

Here organizations such as IIRD would send exploratory panels out to the communities, as a "get to know you" campaign. Over a period of time they would identify predominately young men and women that they would sponsor for further education. The pool of students would often serve as the primary group that would go on to perhaps become powerful community animators.

Not only were they given a valuable education they still retain those familial bonds to their community that often gives them an immediate advantage in having the lived experience of their particular area, as well the rapport of being a community member.

However, problems of jealousy and apprehension can be potentially problematic and it is important that groups and agencies that do seek to draw advocates from the field they seek to assist find ways to mitigate the potential social conflict that might arise. Unfortunately, it may not be possible to completely eliminate it. But it is perhaps a far better approach than previous alternatives