The Repair Mindset

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Solar power is a renewable technology with huge benefits for both the Global North and South - but with an unavoidable byproduct: waste. This book - the first to examine the off-grid solar industry in Kenya - questions the technology's sustainability and is based on ethnographic fieldwork with the independent repair workers at the sharp end of the solar revolution. Declan Murray proposes that, rather than imposing an external blueprint, energy development projects in the Global South should adopt the approach of the 'bricoleur' - which means learning from past experiences, drawing on resources at hand and prioritizing function over form. He concludes with realistic and practical solutions to the problems of solar product breakdown, disposal, repair and recycling.

Declan Murray is Research Associate in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. He previously worked as a consultant in the off-grid solar industry.