Blog Post #1 - The Projective City and Mallon

            As Boltanski and Chiapello state, “the projective city” describes the social landscape of the current labour market as being focused on interconnectivity and holding an extensive skill set. In their view, “the projective city” enables people to curate a personal portfolio of various jobs and skills acquired throughout their lives, expanding their projects. This ideological approach seems to be illustrative of the statements and point of view posited by Mallon. For instance, Mallon proposes that individuals should learn “the equivalent of a master’s degree every ten years to keep pace with changing knowledge demands” (Pedro, 2019). As such, Mallon contends that due to several variables affecting the way in which people work, the workforce will inevitably shift to placing more value on an actors ability to flexibly move between different projects rather than stay with one. This is because as the structure of the workforce changes, so will the values placed upon skills and work in general. These navigational pulls between different projects – or networks – will result in a structural change of how we come to think of and value labour. This is reflective of “the projective city” that Boltanski and Chiapello suggest as each author(s) discusses the shift of value in holding a stable job to navigating between different ones. As a result of this shift, we will enter a world focused on the interconnectivity within networks. Further, Mallon’s comments about the shifting culture of the work force mirrors similar elements presented by Boltanski and Chiapello’s “projective city.” In reference to the Waterloo Region Tech Sector, Mallon predicts a “projective city” will be fostered as the community and industry will have to “think about what type of work needs to be done in the future and the kind of talent that will fill the gap” (Pedro, 2019). In Mallon’s view, industries and companies will have to create connections with one another in order to understand how to attract the best talent for certain job roles. The focus is no longer on situating one individual into a stable position but rather on building an innovative environment in which work and talent can be intertwined to produce the best results.

            In reference to Castells’ typology of network power, networked power and network-making power are the most reflective of “the projective city.” Networked power focuses on the power that social actors hold over other actors in a particular network, analyzing the processes of inclusion and exclusion. This is illustrative of “the projective city” because certain actors will be included in particular networks due to their talents and abilities while others will be excluded. As Boltanski and Chiapello argue, “the projective city” is focused on curating as many skills and abilities as possible but also on providing the best talent to companies. Thus, certain actors will inevitably be excluded from certain networks simply because they will not be beneficial to that networks productivity. In addition, network-making power focuses on the power to switch networks and navigate between alliances within different networks. This is also related to “the projective city” as the concept rests on the framework that actors switch between networks for the purpose of increasing their skill set and expanding their portfolios. Moreover, there are clear similarities between “the projective city” as posited by Boltanski and Chiapello, the comments made by Mallon, and the concept of network power as detailed by Castells.