ABSTRACT
This chapter serves as an introduction to the whole book and, in the last section, provides a short overview of all the chapters. The aim is to provide a theoretical and critical overview of the three main issues and keywords found in the volume: communication, maintenance, and Longue Durée. All three have separate histories and disciplines that study them, but in this book, they are combined. Furthermore, this chapter aims to define one of the most relevant findings emerging in the following chapters which is the existence of different “maintenance culture(s)”. Finally, as a proper book introduction should do, readers will also find a summary of the structure and main contents of the following chapters in the last paragraph.
