At a time when the labour-market is failing as a
source of security and identity for many, domestic tinkering is emerging as a legitimate
occupation in a way we have not seen since pre-industrial times. In Australia,
practices of repair, invention, building, improvising, and crafting, that take
place in sheds, back-yards, paddocks, kitchens, and home-workshops, are becoming
an important part of the informal economy and social cohesion, complicating
distinctions between work and leisure, amateur and professional, production and
consumption.
Building on the work of historians, sociologists,
psychologists, and economists, but with a journalist’s impulse for the currency
of her story, Katherine Wilson documents domestic tinkering as an undervalued
form of material creativity, social connection, psychological sanctuary,
personal identity, and even political activism. Tinkering: Australians Reinvent DIY Culture mounts a surprising case for the
profound value of domestic tinkering in contemporary Australia.
'A rich world emerges in this well-crafted and
well-researched book. The journalistic writing belies the deep theorisation of
the topic, and Wilson moves fluidly among theoretical, ethnographic, and
narrative elements to make an original study of maker culture. I thoroughly
enjoyed reading it.' ~ Kirsty Robertson
'A length of fencing wire, in my farmboy childhood, could fix just about anything. This book has similar miraculous powers. It mixes sociology, science, economics, philosophy, anthropology, and good old tinkerer know-how into an illuminating analysis of the clash between old and new ways of work. Full of fascinating insights and fascinating people, this book is a reminder that work is never just work, and can still have soul.' ~ Mark Davis
