MAINTENANCE

Abstract

The triangulation of work along flexible and fragmented lines requires a new approach to organizing. Subcontracting and third-party employment have exacerbated structural ambiguities over who works for whom and under what conditions. As such, the legalities of these arrangements are often discredited by employers from the onset of a dispute. To break this cycle, new movements must redefine the nature of this relationship in the eyes of the public, rather than the law, by rearticulating the norms and cultural values that underpin public conceptions of justice and fairness. This project draws from the practicalities and particularities of everyday and ongoing maintenance at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts to investigate and expand new possibilities in organizing the service sector.