“The Right to Repair”: A systematic literature review and research agenda for an emerging interdisciplinary field

Abstract

The Right to Repair (R2R) is an important arena in which restrictive repair practices, including limits on access to spare parts, manuals, software, and specialised tools, as well as product designs that inhibit repair, are being contested. Although scholarly interest in R2R is growing rapidly, research remains fragmented across disciplinary and empirical domains, limiting the development of a coherent understanding of its implications for technology-society relations. In response, this paper presents a systematic literature review that maps and synthesises existing research on R2R. Specifically, it (1) consolidates empirical evidence on the implications of R2R; (2) examines how the concept has been theorised across disciplines; and (3) identifies key conceptual and methodological gaps that constrain theoretical and empirical advancement in the field. By organising this literature into coherent thematic domains and tracing the relationships between them, the review argues that the effective realisation of R2R depends on a socio-technical capacity: the practically exercisable ability to repair produced through the interaction between legal entitlements, technological architectures, economic arrangements, and social capabilities. It also reveals disciplinary and geographical imbalances and identifies four tensions structuring future research: formal ownership versus effective control, legal entitlement versus practical repair capacity, universal frameworks versus situated repair practices, and systemic transformation versus continuity.