Barcelona UAB- Repair & Reuse of electronics and objects

Barcelona's density and richness of grassroots and community experiences can be explained by the city's historical background, linked to experiences of self-management and social movements, and by the recent municipalist politics emerging from 15M. However, despite this fertile socio-economic hummus, there are also tensions between privatisation/consumerism and progressive policies on cooperativism and sustainability. In the context of the complex urban dynamics of a city strained by its touristification, community-based repair and reuse initiatives have emerged (e.g. BCN ReCircula) to engage residents in the circularity of their goods and in everyday sustainable and eco-social care practices. 

This project focuses on two repair and reuse grassroot initiatives, Libraries of Things and Restarters BCN, exploring their features, challenges and opportunities in order to explore the possibilities of scale up and establish more extended and strong repair and reuse networks.

The Libraries of Things offer a sustainable model for sharing resources within the community, by lending services where members can borrow various tools and objects promoting reuse and reducing the need for new purchases. This way, they enhance community networks by providing access to tools and resources that might otherwise be unaffordable or inaccessible.

Restart Parties are free, public and community events, organized by the Restarters BCN collective, where participants are pedagogically guided by volunteer repairers in order to fix their own electronic devices. This collective promotes the repair culture in order to reduce electronic waste by extending the life of devices and it promotes ecological and economic benefits through repair rather than replacement and purchase. This way, “we don’t only repair electronics, but our relationship with them”

The objectives of our project are to examine the challenges and opportunities that arise in the creation of these community recirculation spaces and the possible collaboration and synergies between the formal and informal waste management and prevention sectors.

This project is led by a team of two researchers: 
• Blanca Callen Moreu, Lecturer in Social Psychology, with a focus on material cultures, design and collective action in the face of the ecosocial crisis.
• Anastasia Zisakou, postdoctoral in Social Psychology with a focus on urban citizenship, migration studies, inequalities and social movements.

The project is being developed in close collaboration with: 

BIT-Habitat, Urban Innovation Agency BCN a Foundation that drives urban innovation to address the social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges in the city, aiming to foment healthier, more sustainable, competitive, and equitable strategies and actions while also improving the quality of life for its residents.

Barcelona Activa, Local Economic Development Agency a public trading company integrated in the area of Economy and Economic Promotion of Barcelona City Council whose mission is to promote quality employment, entrepreneurship, business competitiveness and the diversification of the productive fabric, in order to achieve a sustainable, inclusive and fair economic model.

Rezero, Foundation for Waste Prevention and Responsible Consumption a private, independent, nonprofit organisation, founded in 2005, that seeks new solutions to extend the life of products and materials by facilitating their reuse and to eliminate the generation of household waste. 

Restarters BCN a non-for-profit collective formed in 2015 and constituted of 100% voluntary people dedicated to the promotion of the repair (in opposition to discard) of electric or electronic equipment to confront planned obsolescence and consumerism.

Environment Unit, Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) The metropolitan area of Barcelona, with an area of 636 km2 and more than 3.3 million inhabitants is one of the largest metropolitan areas in Europe.The Environment Unit includes various Directorates such as Water, Climate Change, and Waste and AMB is responsible for managing waste, while promoting its reduction, selective collection, recycling, and possible reuse.

Some publications of the research team on the topic of repair & reuse: 

• Duque, M. & Callén, B. (in press). Repair-led Learning for Design Education. In: Adams, J. & Carr, Ch. (eds). Designing through Planetary Breakdown: Locating Material Knowledge and Practical Skill. Routledge
• Ruckenstein, M., Pink, S., Duque, M., & Callén, B. (2024). Anticipatory Repair: Reframing Breakage through a Futures Agenda. Interview with Minna Ruckenstein and Sarah Pink. Diseña, (24), Interview.1. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.24.Interview.1 
• Callén, B., & Duque, M. (2023). Repairing Design: Damage, Care, and Fragilities. Diseña, (23), Editorial. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.23.Editorial
• DeSilvey, C., Callén, B., & Duque, M. (2023). Generative Repair and Graceful Decay: Interview with Caitlin DeSilvey. Diseña, (23), Interview.1. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.23.Interview.1
• Ingold, T., Callén, B., & Duque, M. (2023). Circles and Mistakes: Interview with Tim Ingold. Diseña, (23), Interview.2. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.23.Interview.2 
• Callén, B., Duque, M., Callén, E., Andrés, P., González San Emeterio, A., Gallego, S., Céspedes, S., Caballé, M., Lampón, C., Martínez, N., & Martínez-Rivera, O. (2023). Postcards from Abroad. Diseña, (23), Postcards. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.23
• Callén, B., Duque Hurtado, M. (2023). “We Not Only Repair Our Devices, But Also Our Relationship With Them”: Repair-Led ¡Designing at the Restart Parties in Barcelona. In: Kalantidou, E., Keulemans, G., Mellick Lopes, A., Rubenis, N., Gill, A. (eds) Design/Repair. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46862-9_5
• Callén, B. (2023). “Basura electrónica. Cosmovisiones reparadoras para una ética de los residuos“. In: M. Rispoli, R. Rispoli (Eds.), Design, STS e la sfida del più-che-umano/Diseño, STS y el desafío de lo más-que-humano (pp. 100-110). Terraformazioni #1. Napoli: Cratèra Edizioni, (ISBN 979-12-80884-10-7)
• Akese, G., Callén, B. & Wenger, J. (2022). On the Social Dimensions of Disposal. VIGIA: Elektro-Schrott (Zeitschrift Für Technologie und Gesellschaft). Ausgabe 2: "Elektroschorott". Pp. 28-41. Zürich: Verein Vigia
• Callén, B. & López, D. (2019). Intimate with your junk! A waste management experiment for a material world. Sociological Review. Special Issue “Intimate Entanglements in Science and Technology”. Volume 67 Issue 2, March 2019. pp. 318-339
• Delgado, A. y Callén, B. (2017). The making of obsolescence: how things become public in the age of precariousness. Public Understanding of Science (Special Issue). Vol. 26(2) 179–194. DOI: 10.1177/0963662516647348
• Callén, B. (2016). Donner une seconde vie aux déchets électroniques (Recreating e-Waste: Informal expertises and socio-technical innovation from the margins). Techniques&Culture 65-66 « Réparer le monde. Excès, reste et innovation », p. 206-219 ISBN 978-2-7132-2529-1