Anticipatory Repair: Reframing Breakage through a Futures Agenda. Interview with Minna Ruckenstein and Sarah Pink

Abstract

In this interview, we wanted to explore the notion of repair beyond the usual materialities and temporalities of the present. Therefore, we proposed a conversation between Minna Ruckenstein and Sarah Pink, in order to rethink repair in the digital realm of algorithms, AI, and robotics; as well as to speculate on future breakages, and thus anticipate the kind of repair we might need. The following pages represent our dialogical reflections about the promises of completeness that underpin technological and innovative design, which are nevertheless continually broken through everyday and organizational practice. We delve into algorithmic and robotic breakages and repairs, and their implications for how we understand the relationship between humans and machines. This leads to critical questions about how STS might contribute to a futures-focused research agenda, and specifically, how it might beneficially account for optimistic and hopeful futures. To advance these questions, Minna and Sarah draw on their extensive trajectories of empirical and conceptual research. Interview conducted by Melisa Duque and Blanca Callén