Dear Maintainers Community,
Defining what maintenance means is often complex. Maintenance encompasses more than just repairing objects or keeping equipment in working order — it embodies elements of care, addressing economic and social inequities, fostering digital infrastructure for impact, and ensuring healthy living environments for our communities. At its core, The Maintainers strives to support a society that values maintenance, repair, and care by celebrating its cross-cultural implementation and infrastructure.
As we approach the end of our grant-funded period in December 2024, this Narrative of Change provides an overview of our journey and extends an invitation for further dialogue. We witness the global momentum for maintenance thinking and action, and are inspired by the creativity and collaborative spirit evident in the efforts you all champion.
We invite you to learn about our trajectory by reading the first Chapter of our Narrative of Change, where we turn our story inside out and share the reflections throughout these years.
Take care,
The Maintainers Team
Narrative of Change: Chapter 1
Where we have been: gathering interest
Reflecting on our journey from 2015 to the present, we approach our 10th anniversary having evolved from hosting academic conferences to becoming a global network that actively engages community-based practitioners and fosters interdisciplinary collaborations.
Building a movement: better together
Central to our programs, such as our fellowships and public events, are breaking professional silos and opening pathways for skill-sharing and cross-collaboration. We have honed in on themes including grassroots repair collectives, maintenance policies in just transition, waste management, and cooperative models of resource share.
Where we are today: bridging global maintenance initiatives
We believe in local action rooted in place, but international collaboration and skill sharing are essential. We aim to grow a global community, particularly amplifying the leadership of Global South and marginalized Global North practitioners, and bridge connections across countries and communities.
We are what we maintain: sustaining together
We hold a vision for our present and future, in which educators across all levels, scholars, grassroots practitioners, and individuals, come together to catalyze a paradigm shift centered on maintenance, repair, and care.
Coming up in Chapter 2: paths forward, maintaining The Maintainers, and a call for support
We currently have grant funds to sustain our operations until December 2024, but lack resourcing thereafter. This summer, we will be sharing a call for support, outlining the programs we seek to fund, and the necessary funding to continue our work in 2025 and beyond. More details on this campaign will be published soon. In the interim, please reach out if you would like to support us in this resourcing strategy and capacity building.
Support The Maintainers!
You can now show support to The Maintainers by contributing via this Substack newsletter! Your contributions help sustain The Maintainers’ digital infrastructure, as currently we operate as a fully digital community.
This newsletter and our digital content will always stay free.
Thank you :-)
Updates
On May 31st, we held a panel as part of Caring Futures: Contradictions, Transformations, and Revolutionary Possibilities, where Sam Bennett, Leila Behjat, Himani Kulkarni (Maintainers Movement Builders) as well as Liliana Coelho and Lauren Dapena Fraiz (Maintainers Team) talked about how The Maintainers approaches the topic of “Care” as community of researchers and practitioners.
It was a pleasure to be invited to George Mason University and join the VR (Ex) Change Design Sprint. What a great opportunity to connect with other network coordinators and practitioners interested in international community-building around sustainable consumption and production.
We’ve had a wonderful time meeting and learning from so many of our network members through our Maintainers Meet Ups. If you are interested in presenting your project in one of our next Meet Up, please reach out!
If you, or someone you know of is working on a maintenance related project, we’d love to learn about your you and your work! Reach out for a casual coffee chat where we can share more about The Maintainers, and to learn more about your maintenance, repair and care efforts. Email liliana@themaintainers.org to schedule a time to meet!