Cyborg Maintenance: The Invisible Work of the Technological Bodymind

In this article, I describe the concept of Cyborg Maintenance: the being and doing of upkeeping a bodymind that relies on technologies. I focus on the “common” or “everyday” cyborg: the disabled person who relies on prosthetics, wheelchairs, medications, or other technologies to function in day-to-day life. I describe the historical and economic forces that push cyborg maintenance into hiding, what it is like to live and maintain a cyborg bodymind, and what it might mean to foreground the sorts of work necessary to maintain the cyborg bodymind. I argue that Cyborg Maintenance is a maintenance of relationships first, and that it reveals the multiple ways we are all dependent upon the wide care networks of our communities.