Barriers and Opportunities to Repair in Repair Cafes

Abstract

For some years now, a part of the population in Europe has been willing to moderate its consumption and to enter into a sustainable waste reduction perspective. Repair is an important lever in the sustainability of products. It requires appropriate approaches depending on the actors involved, whether they are public, private or at the consumer level. Repair cafés are thus born of local citizen initiatives to act on the life cycle of everyday consumer products. We conducted a qualitative study based on a series of semi-structured interviews with the actors of repair cafés in the Grenoble area (France) and carried out an analysis of qualitative data. This analysis, according to three pre-defined fields, technology-competencies-motivations, reveals the perception of the actors on the current obstacles and opportunities for the development of the amateur repair practice. The results obtained support studies already carried out on the subject and show that design is still failing to match amateur reparation requirements. Besides, the social role of these third places takes precedence over the ecological and economic dimension of repair.

A transition approach for reuse and repair of manufactured products

“…"Design for reuse" needs all components to ensure uniform durability; in contrast, "design for repair" does not necessitate identical component lifespans, as its primary focus is on the ability to remove and replace faulty parts. Unfortunately, repair in the social and solidarity economy (Repair cafés for instance) is facing specific barriers which are still not taken over by industry (Masclet et al, 2023). In the realm of business models, embracing circular economy practices a harmonisation between market dynamics, legal frameworks, and product characteristics that facilitate the extension of product lifespans (Bakker et al, 2014).…”