Blog Post 1 - The Projective City

Boltanski & Chiapello’s articulation of the projective city as a new world in which individuals digress from the traditional and secure 9-5 system of employment, to become autonomous actors in maintaining a personal portfolio of “projects” demonstrating one's ceaseless activity, is highly indicative of Mallon’s argument. Mallon’s proposal that in order to remain viable and relevant within these thriving domains one must learn the “equivalent of a master’s degree every 10 years” parallels the demands proposed within Boltanski & Chiapello’s “projective city”. Mallon’s suggestion connotes that only those who are capable of adaptability, versatility, flexibility and remain in constant pursuit of activity are the actors who will “keep pace with changing knowledge demands” saturating modern tech sectors (Pedro, 2019). Therefore, Mallon's argument echoes Boltanski and Chiapello’s in that he is suggesting a masters degree completed on a 10-year basis is equivalent to acquiring a personal catalogue of established networks, links and successful projects. Additionally, “their flexibility, their ability to adapt and learn continuously, become major advantages, which take precedence over their technical expertise and their experience” (Boltanksi & Chiapello, 1999, p.135) Their vision for the projective city has slowly begun to manifest within today’s technology ecosystems and in this instance, waterloo’s tech sector. The precarious structure of the labour economy has further underscored the competitive nature of employment as actors of today are driven by the dire pursuit of activity. Christine Robinson states that “traditional models of work were about filling full-time jobs with established skill sets whereas today and into the future, we’re going to have to be more interested in adding to our toolkit” (Pedro, 2019). Similarily, Boltanski and Chiapello discuss in a projective city connectionist individuals are autonomous “inasmuch as they are the product of a labour of self-fashioning” (Boltanksi & Chiapello, 1999, p.154). This shift places significant emphasis upon the self-programmable actor who must attach themselves to activity deemed as “good risk” in order to continuously develop their portfolio. As without such “degree” completed diligently every 10 years, those “without a project who no longer explore networks are threatened with exclusion” as their employability subsequently plunders due to inactivity (Boltanksi & Chiapello, 1999, p.111).

The projective city parallels the facilitation of network-making power and network power. The Projective city operates as a system of network power due to the imposition of protocols and rules of inclusion binded to the central communicative concept of generating connections and extending links within this structure (Castell, 1996, p.43). For actors within a projective city, however, they can establish links amongst multiple figurations with specific commonalities in mind to further enhance their resource outreach (Castell, 1996, p.45). 

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