“We Not Only Repair Our Devices, But Also Our Relationship With Them”: Repair-led Designing at the Restart Parties in Barcelona

E-waste is the fastest-growing type of waste, leading to increases in waste management, valuation narratives and circular economy models. Despite the modest but fundamental role of repair as a sustaining and caring practice in everyday life—one that dates back generations as a practice—it remains quite invisible within the growing narratives of circular economies. The focus of this chapter is a case study about Restart Parties (RP), which are free public events where volunteers help participants to repair their own devices. The RP are evidence of repair community initiatives, also on the rise and aimed at tackling e-waste. To achieve large-scale validation, repair initiatives like the RP are required to demonstrate quantitative outcomes (for example, weight [kg] of avoided e-waste, and CO2 emissions). These metrics and reporting requirements often overlook broader socio-cultural values and achievements. Drawing from design ethnographic fieldwork in Barcelona, we analysed qualitative effects of the RP at ecological, economic, epistemic, social and material levels. In doing so, we have found examples of repair-led designing and design-led repairing to contribute towards a generative intersection between brokenness, repair and design.