Repair work as good work: Craft and love in classic car restoration training

Abstract

Repair work is essential if we are to develop environmentally sustainable societies, but repair activity has largely disappeared in advanced economies. Where it survives, work in repair is typically 'dirty' and undesirable. This article asks how repair work can be experienced as 'good work', drawing on the accounts of 20 trainees on a classic car restoration course. We observe that two features made repair 'good work' in their eyes: craft and love. Craft skills enabled trainees to imagine improved employment futures, but also engendered emotional satisfactions. What the trainees emphasized even more was love, in four distinct ways. First, there was 'object love' for the classic car. Second, love was evoked as repair reconnected them with 'authentic' younger selves. Third, love was claimed to be a prerequisite to do the work. Fourth, love mediated market relationships, connecting repairers and clients in a 'community of enthusiasm'. Our discussion contributes to studies of workplace emotions, which typically focus on feminized work, by showing how love also matters in experiences of masculine work. Identifying the attractions of repair, we also consider the liminal context of training and highlight the key conditions for the survival and growth of repair as paid 'good work'.

The mark of the researcher’s hand: the imperfections of craft in the process of becoming a qualitative researcher

“…Craft is a tricky word that holds multiple meanings, however Bell et al (2019) suggest its many definitions rest upon two common values. Firstly, craft’s mode of production involves a deeply personal bodily engagement with materials (Bozkurt and Cohen, 2018) that moves away from a Cartesian split of mind and body to focus on practical skill (Bell et al, 2019). Secondly, craft is considered apart from or outside mainstream means of economic production, and stands in opposition to processes of industrialisation and machination which result in predictable, standardised outcomes (Adamson, 2007; Dormer, 1997).…”

“…Through this article, I build on these conversations by bringing together the craft of research and the craft of pottery to follow my own simultaneous becoming through my doctoral studies in a UK management School, and fieldwork in a UK studio Pottery. I zoom in (Nicolini, 2009) on the practices of making pottery and making research to explore how the deeply personal relationship with materials that is central to craftwork (Bozkurt and Cohen, 2018) unfolds in the process of becoming a qualitative researcher. In turn, I extend discussions on craft in qualitative research by ‘illuminating and challenging’ (Alvesson and Sandberg, 2011: 254) the assumptions underlying dominant views of craft as a sense of mastery represented through the production of well-made objects.…”

Audit and the Pursuit of Dynamic Repair

“…We draw on Sennett's (2008Sennett's ( , 2012 work on craftsmanship, and his notions of repair, to frame our argument for thinking differently about auditing. Sociologists are increasingly paying attention to the social significance of repair work, as the reliance in advanced economies on 'make-use-dispose' linear economic activity models are increasingly seen as unsustainable (see Bozkurt & Cohen, 2019). Driven by a craftsman's curiosity to ask 'why?'…”

Human Relations virtual special issue: The Quality of Working Life Revisited

“…Cooke et al (2013) use a qualitative study, comparing rural workers in Newfoundland and Ireland, to show that a complex array of institutional, family and life stage factors help to shape perceptions of and experiences of job quality. The challenge to any attempt to develop objective indicators of job quality is highlighted in the article by Bozkurt and Cohen (2019). Reflecting the classic study by Pirsig (1974) on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance , they reveal a context in which dirty work, that is the repair of damaged vintage cars, can be viewed as quality work.…”