The second global survey of repair cafés: a summary of findings

In 2014 The Centre for Sustainable Design (CfSD) at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Farnham in the UK undertook the first global survey of volunteers at Repair Cafes, in collaboration with The Repair Cafe Foundation (Charter & Keiller, 2014 - Circular Economy and Grassroots Innovation – A Global Survey of Repair Cafes and Hackerspaces). Particular emphasis was placed throughout the work on understanding the importance of environmental, social and economic drivers as motivations for participation and of the activities undertaken. Since the first survey two years ago, the number of Repair Cafes around the world has more than doubled. This report presents a summary of the findings of a second global survey of Repair Cafe volunteers, undertaken in February and March 2016 by CfSD in collaboration with Repair Cafe International (RCI). This work aims to understand whether there have been any changes in volunteer attitudes, motivations and activities undertaken at Repair Cafes and also introduces new questions that explore issues including risk management, community engagement, data collection and barriers to success. The additional questions have been inspired by CfSD's experience as a co-founder with Transition Town Farnham of Farnham Repair Cafe, UK which was launched in February 2015.