Trust and Technology Repair Infrastructures in the Remote Rural Philippines

Abstract

This paper analyzes the processes and challenges of technology repair in remote, low-income areas far from standard ICT repair infrastructure. Our sites of study are the fishing and farming villages of Dibut, Diotorin, and Dikapinisan in Aurora Province, Philippines, located in coastal coves against a mountain range. Residents are geographically isolated from urban areas, with the nearest peri-urban center of Baler a boat trip of several hours away, infeasible in some sea conditions. Unlike prior work in more connected rural areas, there are no local repair shops and device repair is uncommon, despite frequent breakage due to harsh conditions for electronics. The scarcity of local electronics repair limits technology access and leads to accumulation of e-waste. While prior work demonstrates that local electronics repair capability does arise in many rural areas around the world, we must also acknowledge that the successful emergence of this infrastructure depends on the intersection of many structural conditions and cannot be taken for granted. We present the material hardships of achieving local repair in terms of seams between heterogeneous urban and rural infrastructures, which illustrate the cove communities' marginality with respect to many forms of public infrastructure. However, intermittent and informal repair infrastructures based on trust relationships emerge to patch these seams in remote settings. We show how trust affects the way people dynamically construct repair infrastructure and why, based on their remoteness and the resulting value propositions of repair. Networks of trust between repairers, their clients, suppliers, fellow repairers, and certifying or training institutions crucially facilitate the movement of resources and expertise across the Philippines, but also reinforce the marginality of residents and repairers in the coves. Despite these structural challenges, local people are able to maintain a robust ecosystem for rural electrical line repair, from which we generalize the model of training grounds as a strategy for sustaining local communities of repair experts.

Softskill and Hardskill Capability of Using Fish Pellet Machines in Fish Cultivation Groups in Ungaran

“…The problem faced by fish farming group partners in Beji Village, East Ungaran District in making their own fish feed using a fish pellet molding machine is a lack of knowledge about how to operate and maintain the fish pellet molding machine. The aim of this training activity is so that the fish farming group community can operate the fish pellet printing machine properly and can maintain the fish pellet printing machine themselves so that if there is a problem or damage to the machine they can repair it themselves by buying spare parts available at the nearest shop or can buy through the online shop [21], [22], [23], [24].…”

Situating Network Infrastructure with People, Practices, and Beyond: A Community Building Workshop

“…Social science insights have also informed network technology design supporting community healthcare [18] [4, 17, 59], agricultural data integration [53], optimised environmental sensing [62], and the movement of money and goods [36]. Some studies have served as precursors to design, such as investigations of network traffic characteristics or repair in remote rural communities that reveal their particular needs [38,39,60].…”

Planet of fixers? Mapping the middle grounds of independent and do‐it‐yourself information and communication technology maintenance and repair

“…This work often approaches INDIY M&R in the form of rich, qualitative fieldwork‐based ethnographies at sites of voluntary community repair and of commercial‐based repair. Interest in community and commercial‐based sites of INDIY ICT M&R detail how branding can generate affective communities of repair and maintenance that may promote sustainability in the smartphone sector (Svenson, ); how technical knowledge is acquired and circulated amongst technicians (e.g., Ahmed et al, ; Houston, ); how that knowledge effects sustainability, especially in contexts of ICT for development and the “Global South” (e.g., Jackson et al, ; Jackson et al, ); how M&R practices undermine and uphold power relations, including those threading through gender, citizenship, and justice (Crooks, ; Rosner, ); and how ICT repair labour practices strategically reveal and conceal those labour practices so as to modulate customer experiences and build trust between repair technicians and those they provide repair services to (Bell et al, ; Jang et al, ).…”