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Circularity in how we handle resources and materials is a key ambition in many sustainability initiatives and policies. Yet, when it comes to the circularity of ICT, much research tends to focus on how raw materials are sourced and later recycled. E-waste has represented the fastest growing waste stream globally for years, and the vast majority is not handled appropriately. In a society where repair is possible, accessible and the normative response to the breakage of devices, this waste stream could be dramatically reduced. In this paper, we describe and discuss the results of a literature review of how repair of ICT has been approached in the proceedings of previous ICT4S conferences (2013–2020). The findings are then analysed in relation to a set of speculative future Repair Society scenarios, which were developed to inform policy recommendations. The paper contributes to the ICT4S community by: 1) identifying aspects of ICT repair that have been studied to date; 2) using the Repair Society scenarios to generate insights and reflect on gaps in the research; and 3) outlining insights and suggestions of areas that could fruitfully be explored by the ICT4S community in future research., QC 20220824Part of proceedings: ISBN 978-1-6654-8286-8, SFLAB

A Circular Economy (CE) constitutes one pathway towards realising sustainable productionand consumption. Here, the repair of broken products (compared to replacement) consti-tutes an important strategy to keep products in the economy for longer, thereby reducingwaste, as well as the need to extract resources and emit pollution in the manufacture of areplacement product. In today’s world, repair does not necessarily constitute the naturalresponse to product breakage. However, increasing legislative efforts and grassroots move-ments are attempting to change that and make repair accessible, affordable and culturallyacceptable. The question is what such a society – where repair is normalised – would be like.