Holes are forming in my favourite socks. They aren’t anything special – a black poly-cotton blend. But they are just the right length to cover the gap between my trousers and my boots, with the perfect amount of elasticity, staying up without pinching. I could try to darn them but why bother, when I can replace them with a few dollars and a click on a shopping app?
There is the planet to consider. The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu might have considered mending my socks to be an act of resistance against the culture of fast-moving consumer goods; the environmental catastrophe of high capitalism. Repair cafes are springing up all over the world. At last count, there were almost 50,000 volunteers gathering in more than 3,000 global locations, offering to fix broken things and teach people like me how to do the same.
