The authors will present the book

• on September 28 at 12:00 in the seminar of the STSLab of the University of Lausanne

• on September 29 at 6:30 pm at the autumn conference of the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Geneva

• on October 13 at 7pm, book launch at the bookshop l’Atelier, 2 bis rue du Jourdain 75020 Paris

What do a furnace, a car, a signpost, a smartphone, a cathedral, a work of art, a satellite, a washing machine, a bridge, a clock, a computer server, the body of an illustrious statesman, or a tractor have in common? Almost nothing, except that none of these things, small or large, precious or banal, lasts without some form of maintenance. Every object wears out, degrades, eventually breaks, or even disappears. However, do we really grasp the importance of maintenance? As a counterpoint to the contemporary obsession with innovation, and less spectacular than the singular act of repair, this delicate art of making things last is only very rarely brought to our attention.

This book is an invitation to shift the focus to maintenance and those who perform it. By following the thread of different stories, its authors describe the subtleties of “caring for things” in order to underline its ethical stakes and its political significance. Because of the sensitive attention to fragility that is cultivated and because a material diplomacy that resists the frantic rhythm of programmed obsolescence and overconsumption is invented on a daily basis, maintenance outlines the contours of a world away from the pretensions of human omnipotence and technological autonomy. A world where forms of attachment to things are much less trivial than one might imagine.

Jérôme Denis et David Pontille. Le soin des choses. Politiques de la maintenance. Paris, La Découverte, 2022.