Social Inclusion in Repair Initiatives

Repair initiatives like repair cafés are open spaces where volunteers support the repair of everyday objects. Their possible contribution to a more circular society is however currently constrained by which social groups they reach.

This research project explores how their social reach and inclusivity can be strengthened to unlock their full potential in supporting a just eco-social transition.

Project Type: Diploma Thesis

Project Period: 01/2025 - 9/2025

Project Partners:
Repair Café DreCo, Konglomerat e.V., re:sax (Landesverband Nachhaltiges Sachsen e.V.),
Dear Future Festival

Research Paper @ DRS 2026:
Designing social inclusion in circular transitions: A participatory study of repair initiatives in Germany

  • Person filling out a booklet with the title reading "power"

    Cultural Probes Set

    Provides a guide for repair initaitives to reflect on their social outreach.

  • Interview of two teenagers in the city center

    56 Interviews

    What are barriers to a visit in a repair initiative and what could be improved?

  • Mixed groups of four and five people sit around tables with diy materials

    Prototyping Workshops

    20 participants from six initiatives prototyped more socially inclusive repair initiatives.

  • People repairing electronics on a table

    Utopian Repair Café

    Testing different prototyped ideas together with a partner initiative.

In-Depth-Process

How to promote social inclusion in repair initiatives?

1

Uncover different perspectives
on social inclusion in repair initiatives.

Interview invitation displayed on phone held by a person
Person getting interviewed by another person

The project started with conducting interviews to understand the current state of accessibility for different stakeholders. Interview partners included:

  • 3 repair initiatives,

  • 2 repair initiative networks,

  • 9 people who visited a repair initiative before and

  • 44 people who did not.

The results suggested, that initiatives were unaware of the full extent of the barriers facing visitors. They have limited personal resources and were primarily interested in social inclusion in relation to securing new volunteers.

  • „In the past, when I took my bicycle to the repair shop, I always felt like people were laughing at me a little when I asked what you might call stupid questions [...] had the feeling that it wasn't such a safe space. “

    Potential Visitor

  • „I would have liked [...] to be able to participate a little more, because he [repair café volunteer] ended up doing a lot of the work.“

    Repair Café Visitor

  • „I have the impression that young guests see us as a repair shop and want to be served, which is not what we want, because we want to encourage them to get involved, but most of them simply lack the most basic skills. “

    Repair Initiative Representative

  • „I felt as if it was going to be a bit of an hustle or not worth the effort, because I didn't know if I would actually get the help that I needed.“

    Potential Visitor

  • "It takes a certain amount of courage [...], to confide in basically strangers with technical problems. Especially when, like me, you don't really have much technical knowledge yourself [...] So, well, I'm a little afraid of looking stupid, yes."

    Potential Visitor

  • "I wouldn't bring my own friends with a migration background either, because I can't really anticipate the reaction within the project."

    Repair Initiative Representative [paraphrased]

  • "Inequality in the workshop reflects structural inequalities, such as differences in technical training."

    Repair Initiative Representative [paraphrased]

  • " I really tried, and I even approached two female visitors about becoming volunteers, but they never got back to me. I wonder if I was too pushy."

    Repair Initiative Representative [paraphrased]

  • "But it definitely took some effort on my part. I noticed that I only did [visit a repair initiative] after I had already taught myself certain things or tried them out for myself."

    Potential Visitor

  • "What they do and what they look like. I wouldn't even know where to find them, so... Advertising is completely absent. "

    Potential Visitor

2

Co-design new visions for more socially inclusive repair spaces.

Person drawing on worksheet
Activity book, open and closed
Mix of different papers, stickers and string

To mirror back the research findings to practioners and spark a guided reflection process, a two-part workshop was developed. It is made up out of:

  • Reflection set: independently usable toolkit for researching social inclusion in the own initiative before and after the workshop and a

  • Design prototyping session: Co-design of inclusive repair spaces on floor plans in small groups, based on an take-home overview of the research results up to this point.

Three workshops with overall 26 participants (initiative members, visitors, non-visitors) produced 7 floor plans, which primarily addressed social and convenience-related barriers.

  • Person distributing diy material on tables in empty room
  • People in groups listening to agenda presentation and laughing
  • Two people highlighting text on a handout
  • Group discussing placement on floor plan
  • Close-up of a hand writing on a floor plan with DIY material
  • Group discussion while prototyping
  • Person pointing to floor plan while presenting workshop result
  • Person presenting floor plan to group

3

Test interventions in practice.

Two people looking at a laptop with a led sign "repair café" in front of them

„We need MORE of this!
This is exactly what we need!"

Feedback Card

Together with a partner initiative an utopian repair café was organized during the DEAR FUTURE FESTIVAL 2026. The café integrated some of the ideas from the workshops to test their applicability and impact on social inclusion in practice.

The event attracted around 50 people. Increasing the visibility of the initiative and creating other incentives to visit and get to know the initiative apart from repair showed the most immediate impact on increasing social inclusion.

Funded by Zukunftswege Ost.

  • Bike Repair Workshop for Marginalized Genders

  • Poster with a mixer and "broken?" in different languages

    Multilingual Communication Material

  • Two older people looking at a poster

    Exhibition of the Research Process

  • Person showing another a small token.

  • Person talking to a child

    Care Giver for Children

  • Person pinning photo to corkboard

    Role Model Gallery

  • Advertising display and ad written in chalk on the street

    Increasing Visibility in Urban Space

  • Close-up of a hand putting a feedback card inside a box.

    Anonymous Feedback System

You would like
to know more?

Have a look at my paper on the topic in the DRS 2026 archive or write me a short message.

I’d love to hear from you!

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