David Pontille

Dans cet échange captivant, David Pontille, directeur de recherche au CNRS et co-auteur de "Le soin des choses", dévoile notre rapport souvent négligent aux objets du quotidien. Il aborde l'importance de la maintenance, soulignant comment nos comportements contribuent à un gaspillage alarmant. Ensemble, ils nous incitent à valoriser les gestes simples de réparation et à redécouvrir le savoir-faire derrière des pratiques disparues. La discussion interroge notre responsabilité envers notre environnement matériel et l'art de faire durer les choses.

David Pontille, researcher of maintenance practices, and Jérôme Denis, scholar of fragility and the care of things, join to discuss their new books. They trace how fieldwork with infrastructure crews led them to study fragility, contrast maintenance and repair, explore attention and phenomenology in care work, and frame maintenance as a potential subversive practice in the age of planned obsolescence.

In this engaging discussion, guests Jérome Denis and David Pontille, both scholars from France, dive into the philosophy of maintenance. They explore how everyday care connects to social dynamics and infrastructure, revealing the fragility of urban signage and the multisensory nature of maintenance work. The conversation highlights the often overlooked, yet vital role of maintenance, using examples like the Paris Metro and classic Mustangs. They also link maintenance to feminist care ethics, emphasizing the unseen labor that sustains our daily lives.