Title
Learning, innovation, and sustainability among mobile phone repairers in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract
Acts of technology maintenance and repair constitute important and often overlooked moments in the operation of complex interactive systems. They also provide fresh insight on a series of problems -- innovation, learning, and sustainability -- long core to HCI concern. This paper builds on original ethnographic fieldwork in the repair markets of Dhaka, Bangladesh to advance three basic arguments: first, that repair activities in such locations reveal novel and significant forms of craft-based knowledge and innovation; second, that repair work is embedded in local and transnational flows that connect local practices to global networks and institutions; and third, that taking repair work seriously can cast new light on problems of learning and sustainability in the design and operation of complex interactive systems. We conclude with observations that relate our repair-based findings back to problems in interactive systems research and design.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1145/2598510.2598576
Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
design,user/machine systems,bangladesh,repair,ethnography,sustainability
Craft,Global network,Knowledge management,Management,Mobile phone,Engineering,Multimedia,Sustainability
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
21
0.90
19
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Steven J. Jackson138027.24
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed217118.71
Md. Rashidujjaman Rifat3574.70