Working Relations

Abstract

This paper offers a concept of working relations as a complement and extension to existing theories of maintenance, care and repair. Building on the cases of an umbrella, a tractor and a pond, it advances seven propositions that might guide and inform further work and thinking in this space. It concludes with the challenging figures of Chernobyl, nickel extraction, and AI, and argues for the centrality of working relations to more generative and pluralistic relations with the things and worlds around us.