Behind breakdown: the case of the MV Veteran

Persaud, Donny Harry (2018) Behind breakdown: the case of the MV Veteran. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Infrastructure as a topic of research has seen much attention within geographic and Science and Technology Studies literature. Frequently, studies of infrastructure explored the implementation of new infrastructures or the effects of infrastructural breakdowns on the relations sustained by these systems carrying the implicit assumption that infrastructures function seamlessly and disruptions constitute aberrations from a working norm. Recent works have problematized this assumption exploring the everyday practices of infrastructure’s users and the practices of repair and maintenance which sustain infrastructural systems. This thesis examines breakdown, repair, and maintenance of a new passenger ferry operating in a rural island community off Newfoundland’s north coast. This thesis extends current observations on emerging repair and maintenance literature from the situated activities of maintainers to the decision-making processes governing repair and maintenance. In doing so, this thesis illustrates how space, commonly held as a neutral surface on which these practices are undertaken, comes to influence how the passenger ferry is repaired and maintained as well as used by the islands’ residents.

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