This is a great Ted Talk by Matthew Crawford, author of “The Case For Working With Your Hands”. In the film shown below, Crawford summarises a lot of the topics discussed in more depth in the book.
The notion of ‘Individual Agency‘ and the idea that if people are able to see the consequences of their actions on the world (agency), they may take better care of it is discussed. Also, Crawford talks about the connection between the person and the object that they ‘tinker’ with or take care of.
A lot of the ideas from the book are directly relevant to my maintenance project and support the idea that working on our own possessions builds a deeper relationship between consumer and product.
Maintenance, or taking care of things, can extend product lifespan in a pragmatic sense; it can extend the useful life of a product by maintaining it in peak working condition. It can also contribute in that the bond that is created through active caring can lead to the consumer wanting to keep products for longer.
Gordon Young 