REVIEW 2 major objections 2 minor 16 references
Working Relations
T0 review · 2 major / 2 minor · reviewed 2026-06-29 · grok-4.3
Pith's one-line read Working relations extend theories of maintenance, care, and repair by advancing seven propositions drawn from concrete cases.
desk verdict This is a clear conceptual extension in HCI that names 'working relations' and offers seven propositions, but it stays at the level of reframing without new evidence or tests. read the letter →
The pith
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
The reading
What carries the argument
working relations, the ongoing reciprocal engagements between people and objects or systems that sustain, transform, or challenge them over time
What would settle it
A detailed account of one of the seven propositions applied to a new infrastructure failure that yields no new guidance on generative relations would undermine the framework.
Extended reading notes
Core claim
Working relations serve as a complement and extension to existing theories of maintenance, care, and repair; the paper builds seven propositions from the umbrella, tractor, and pond cases and uses the figures of Chernobyl, nickel extraction, and AI to argue that attention to working relations is central to more generative and pluralistic relations with things and worlds.
Load-bearing premise
The chosen cases of an umbrella, tractor, pond, Chernobyl, nickel extraction, and AI are sufficient to demonstrate the generality and usefulness of the seven propositions.
Editorial extensions
If this is right
- Design and maintenance practices can be reoriented around the seven propositions to support ongoing working relations rather than one-time fixes.
- Large-scale technical systems such as nuclear facilities or global supply chains require attention to working relations to avoid destructive outcomes.
- Relations with AI systems become more pluralistic when viewed through the lens of the seven propositions.
- Further research in human-computer interaction and related fields can use the propositions to structure studies of repair and care.
- Generative outcomes emerge when working relations are treated as central rather than secondary to technical systems.
Reading between the lines
- The propositions could be applied to software maintenance to shift focus from bug fixes to sustained relational work.
- Similar cases from agriculture or urban infrastructure might reveal additional propositions or refinements.
- Empirical studies could test whether designs informed by the propositions produce measurable differences in long-term user engagement.
- The framework connects to questions of environmental justice by highlighting relational aspects of resource extraction.
Signed reviews
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. This paper offers a concept of working relations as a complement and extension to existing theories of maintenance, care and repair. Building on the cases of an umbrella, a tractor and a pond, it advances seven propositions that might guide and inform further work and thinking in this space. It concludes with the challenging figures of Chernobyl, nickel extraction, and AI, and argues for the centrality of working relations to more generative and pluralistic relations with the things and worlds around us.
Significance. If the proposed concept holds, it has the potential to extend theoretical frameworks in human-computer interaction and adjacent fields by introducing 'working relations' as a generative lens for human-artifact interactions. The paper's approach of using illustrative cases to develop guiding propositions rather than empirical claims is a positive feature, as is its engagement with provocative examples to stimulate further inquiry. This could inform design practices and research on technology maintenance and care.
major comments (2)
- [Cases and propositions] Cases and propositions: The development of the seven propositions from the umbrella, tractor, and pond cases lacks explicit mapping or justification for how specific elements of each case inform individual propositions; this makes the conceptual advance harder to assess as load-bearing for the central claim.
- [Challenging figures] Challenging figures: The argument for the centrality of working relations in the conclusion relies on posing Chernobyl, nickel extraction, and AI as challenges but does not apply the seven propositions to them, weakening the demonstration of the concept's utility for guiding thinking in complex scenarios.
minor comments (2)
- [Abstract] The abstract could benefit from a brief statement on the intended audience or disciplinary context within HCI.
- [Terminology] The distinction between 'working relations' and related concepts like care or repair could be clarified earlier in the manuscript to avoid potential overlap confusion.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for their encouraging summary and recommendation for minor revision. We address the two major comments point-by-point below, agreeing to revisions that enhance the clarity of our conceptual development.
read point-by-point responses
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Referee: Cases and propositions: The development of the seven propositions from the umbrella, tractor, and pond cases lacks explicit mapping or justification for how specific elements of each case inform individual propositions; this makes the conceptual advance harder to assess as load-bearing for the central claim.
Authors: We agree that making the derivation process more explicit would strengthen the paper. The propositions emerged from close reading and iterative reflection on the cases, but this was not fully articulated. In the revision, we will introduce a new table or subsection that maps key elements from each case (such as the umbrella's material affordances, the tractor's socio-technical networks, and the pond's temporal ecologies) to the relevant propositions, providing justifications for these connections. This will make the conceptual advance more assessable. revision: yes
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Referee: Challenging figures: The argument for the centrality of working relations in the conclusion relies on posing Chernobyl, nickel extraction, and AI as challenges but does not apply the seven propositions to them, weakening the demonstration of the concept's utility for guiding thinking in complex scenarios.
Authors: We appreciate this point. While the figures are presented as open challenges to invite further inquiry, applying the propositions would indeed better illustrate their utility. We will revise the conclusion to include concise applications of the propositions to these examples—for instance, using propositions on interdependence and ongoingness to discuss AI maintenance—without claiming comprehensive analysis. This will be a partial revision to balance the paper's scope. revision: partial
Circularity Check
No significant circularity
full rationale
The paper is a conceptual contribution that introduces 'working relations' as an extension to prior theories of maintenance, care, and repair. It advances seven propositions drawn from three illustrative cases (umbrella, tractor, pond) and uses challenging figures (Chernobyl, nickel extraction, AI) as provocations. No mathematical derivations, fitted parameters, self-definitional reductions, or load-bearing self-citations appear; the propositions function as generative guides rather than outputs forced by the inputs or by author-overlapping citations. The argument structure is self-contained against external benchmarks in STS and HCI literature.
Assumptions & free parameters
assumptions (1)
- domain assumption The selected cases of an umbrella, a tractor, and a pond are sufficient to ground general propositions about working relations.
invented entities (1)
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working relations
Cite this review
Pith. "Pith review of Working Relations." pith.science (2026). https://pith.science/paper/I7XSVPLE
@misc{pith2026260525260,
author = {Pith},
title = {Pith review of: Working Relations},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://pith.science/paper/I7XSVPLE}},
note = {Machine review of arXiv:2605.25260}
}
read the original abstract
This paper offers a concept of working relations as a complement and extension to existing theories of maintenance, care and repair. Building on the cases of an umbrella, a tractor and a pond, it advances seven propositions that might guide and inform further work and thinking in this space. It concludes with the challenging figures of Chernobyl, nickel extraction, and AI, and argues for the centrality of working relations to more generative and pluralistic relations with the things and worlds around us.
Reference graph
Works this paper leans on
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[1]
I have forgotten my umbrella
Working Relations1 Steven J. Jackson Professor of Information Science and Science and Technology Studies Cornell University 110H Gates Hall, Ithaca, New York USA 14850 e-mail: sjj54@cornell.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4426-1320 Forthcoming in Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics (2026) Abstract This paper offers a concept of working relations as a c...
2026
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[2]
What work does this thing [read: object, practice, infrastructure, belief] do?
Introduction The eventi that occasioned these thoughts was a lovely and instructive week around Tartu and the Estonian National Museum in the company of many of the contributors to this volume. The stunning Estonian National Museum stands at the end of the decommissioned runway of one of the largest Soviet air bases of the Cold War, its curves built to mi...
2021
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[3]
If you can’t fix it, you don’t own it
is both input and output of the activity: more accurately, it grows within and alongside the practices inscribed. This makes learning a – perhaps the? – central act of working relations, and the sharing of knowledge its most powerful mode of extension in the world. Conversely, efforts to limit or attenuate working knowledge – whether by design, strategy, ...
2002
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[4]
The utter impossibility of this operation (per Latour’s astute observations) does not prevent its power, and we occupy its aftermath
is a great disembedding, wherein relations are lifted up, emptied, and returned to earth as system lacking specificity, weight, and depth. The utter impossibility of this operation (per Latour’s astute observations) does not prevent its power, and we occupy its aftermath. Through these processes people learn to engage with figures of things, rather than t...
1967
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[5]
These relations speak to the depth and capaciousness of humans, and to the depth and capaciousness of worlds
that provide all too frequently our main or only line of approach to these scenes. These relations speak to the depth and capaciousness of humans, and to the depth and capaciousness of worlds. Readers of this piece may have Chernobyls or Sudburys of their own: places that on some level and for many reasons they shouldn’t love, but do. Against romantic, na...
2025
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[6]
Tell me about the first time you saw the northern lights
– that can have certain and terrible land-emptying (by people-erasing) effects. Finally, working relations are often (always?) compromised, messy and imperfect, offering guidance but little of the adjudicatory clarity that can seem so essential to the strident normativities of our day. If I have given examples that are personal and near-to-hand, I believe...
2025
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[7]
– Theaturtle
Kiuryak. – Theaturtle. https://www.theaturtle.com/shows/kiuryaq/ (accessed March 23, 2026). Brown, Kate
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New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
Why Liberalism Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300223446.001.0001. Denis, Jérôme and David Pontille
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[9]
London: Polity
The Care of Things: Ethics and Politics of Maintenance, translated by Andrew Brown. London: Polity. Derrida, Jacques. 1981 [1976]. Spurs: Nietzsche’ s Styles, translated by Barbara Harlow. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Errázuriz, Tomás and Ricardo Greene
1981
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– Design and Culture 13 (3): 277–303
The Countless Lives of Newspapers and the Right to Repurpose. – Design and Culture 13 (3): 277–303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17547075.2021.1967687. Haraway, Donna
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Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cw25q. Harper, Douglas
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[12]
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
Working Knowledge: Skill and Community in a Small Shop. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. iFixit. No date. Repair Manifesto. https://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto (accessed March 23, 2026). Kingsnorth, Paul
2026
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[13]
– American Behavioral Scientist 43 (3): 377–391
The Ethnography of Infrastructure. – American Behavioral Scientist 43 (3): 377–391. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00027649921955326. Therborn, Goran
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[14]
– Global Modernities, edited by Mike Featherstone, Scott Lash, and Roland Roberston
Routes To/Through Modernity. – Global Modernities, edited by Mike Featherstone, Scott Lash, and Roland Roberston. London: Sage Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250563.n7. Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt
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Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Post-Capitalist Ruins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvc77bcc. Tuck, Eve
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Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past and Present of Urban Self-Provisioning
Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities. – Harvard Educational Review 79 (3): 409–428. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.3.n0016675661t3n15. Weber, Max. 2002 [1905]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Other Writings, translated by Peter Baehr and Gord...
2002 doi
Reviewed June 29, 2026 · model on record in the stance chip above.
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