Repair can be understood as a civic practice and an essential form of care, particularly in the face of ecological crises and the need to move towards a circular economy. Most research on repair tends to focus on infrastructure and maintenance labour, rather than community-led approaches. This studentship will focus on understanding the experience of GalGael, a community organisation in Ibrox, Glasgow.

GalGael emerged from an anti-motorway protest to become a focal point for community repair, both through practical work to repair material goods, and the repair of community and social relationships. The studentship has three aims: to contribute to fill a key gap in the social science scholarship on repair; to accurately mirror and provide a source of self-reflection for GalGael to (re)orient its activities and framings; and to offer a source of knowledge to any community organisation engaging in repair work across the world.

A co-produced ethnographic approach is proposed. This will involve reviews of relevant literature and GalGael documentation, standard ethnographic methods of interviews with key informants and participant observation, and collaborative analysis sessions with GalGael members. We anticipate that this approach, unlike standard qualitative approaches, will produce an understanding of what is, rather than what people interpret, therefore producing deep insights into whether, how and why repair work has effects on individuals and the community.

We anticipate a limited series of impactful outputs from the work, balancing feasibility with contribution, including: the thesis, potentially one academic journal article, presentations to the GalGael assembly and board of trustees, and an impact-orientated guide for other third-sector organisations.

Collaborative Partner: GalGael

Supervisory Team: 

• First Supervisor: Professor Gerry McCartney, Gerard.McCartney@glasgow.ac.uk
• Second Supervisor: Dr Giovanni Picker, Giovanni.Picker@glasgow.ac.uk