The Politics of Repair in a Broken World

Much of the world is currently bearing witness to major transformations to the liberal-modern geopolitical order that has defined it for some time. Amid this crisis, an array of new political orientations have been adopted by the different actors now competing for the authority to establish the agendas that will shape our future. One such orientation is repair. Repair refers to a mode of political critique that reads our present malaise as the result of the myriad violences that accumulated over the course of liberal modernity. It also encapsulates a catalogue of practices, policies and legal mechanisms designed to make amends for such harms too. So while those invoking the need for repair stress the importance of environmental damage, capitalist exploitation, structural racism and imperial desire in shaping our contemporary moment, they also highlight pathways for engendering what they see as more equitable and just futures through loss and damage funds, land restoration policy or transitional justice. Drawing on their research into climate change, colonialism, humanitarian crises, revolution and counter-terrorism, this forum’s contributors come together to critically discuss the politics of repair as it appears across myriad scenes that contribute significantly to the current conjunctural crisis. Rather than seeking to make conclusive and definitive claims about repair, contributors reflect and account for its presence across these scenes and potential ramifications in the not-so-distant future. While significantly developing our understanding of why repair might figure as a source of hope, the forum also stresses the different reasons why repair should also be treated with caution in worlds to come.