Recuperating labour's environmental potential

Abstract

In response to Carr's article, ‘Repair and care: Locating the work of climate crisis’, I explore how repair labour demonstrates the importance of skilled, hands-on labour for responding to times of breakdown and change. Like scholarship on apprenticeship and practical enskilment, repair work demonstrates how labour entails working with the material world and other workers, and hands-on engagement with complex and changing systems. Instead of approaching labour and environmental concerns as separate and often antagonistic, I believe attending to the embodied and relational nature of labour may provide insight on how to work towards a more just socio-environmental future.