Motorcycle Repair in Post-Repair Societies: Technology, Aesthetics and Gender

Most social science studies on automobility have focused on the production, usage, identity construction and aesthetic improvements of personal means of transportation. What happens if we shift the focus to the labour, knowledge and social relations that go into the unavoidable moments of maintenance and repair? Taking motorcycling in Romania as an ethnographic entry point, this book documents how bikers handle the inevitable moments of malfunction and breakdown. Using both mobile and sedentary research methods, the book describes the joys and troubles experienced by amateur mechanics, professional mechanics and untechnical men and women when fixing bikes.

Gabriel Jderu is a sociology professor, ethnographer, and, since 2012, a certified mechanic. He teaches Research Methods and The Sociology of the Body at the Department of Sociology, University of Bucharest, Romania.