The Projective City


The term the projective city coined by Boltanski and Chipello is used to describe a city that is founded on mediating activities in order to create networks to derive and maintain contact as well as enhance individuals’ connections (Boltanski & Chipello, 2005). Therefore, from understanding the role of a projective city, the argument made by Mallon can be seen as indicative to this term as it argues how the Waterloo Region Tech Sector is a testbed for new ideas in order to tackle the change in work environments (Pedro, 2019). It is indicative of a projective city because of the way the city fosters and encourages technological change in the ways individual’s work and by housing businesses that attract and keep talented employees. In addition, when Mallon states how “we don’t earn a living, we learn a living” demonstrates how Waterloo is a projective city as it attempts to use a community approach that will make Waterloo a sample area to see if this type of work environment will be successful (Pedro, 2019).  By the shift in traditional work culture and hiring based on what job are needed to be accomplished and what type of talent is required to do so, exemplifies the key points as to how a projective city operates. When reflecting on how the Waterloo Region Tech Sector operates through its networks that make up the majority of the employment in the region is in fact, a projective city.

The kind of power that facilities the approach to learning conceivably that enhances individual actors in contemporary information capitalism is network power. To follow this community approach with the goal to inhabit new connections that lead to new ideas and innovations, I believe that the network power allows this to happen by the imposition of inclusion in order to obtain more information and build new and stronger networks. By coordinating social interaction amongst the employees from all sectors, individuals are pushed to form social relations with others that can bring benefit to them. We see this through Communitech partnering with Deloitte, Manulife and the University of Toronto, and their constant events they hold to network and educate people.

Do you share the same view as to what power is best for this approach? Why or why not?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changing Times in Ontario's Tech Ecology

Ottawa, Toronto, and Waterloo have long been the technological-innovation hubs of Ontario. These cities are home to major innovation institutions, Invest Ottawa, MaRS Discovery District in Toronto and Communitech in Waterloo. While these hubs have been an essential element of the growth of technology and entrepreneurship within the province, there is always room for more growth.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently announced the provincial investment in merging these three institutions into one overarching program. This program launches under the expectation that it will bring in $100 million dollars in revenue to its 30 scale-up companies, as well as providing services to thousands of entrepreneurs and their innovations.  This new program, called the Scale-Up Platform will be receiving an investment of $52.4 million from the Government of Canada in order to facilitate this growth. By combining these programs and affiliating them with the Ontario governmen...
Read more

Question 2 Response

In defence of Facebook’s business practices, Mark Zuckerberg’s idea of ‘connection’ fully embodies Flichy’s ideas on the relationships between ideology, myth and utopia. A myth essentially creates another meaning for an existing signifier; a utopia can be defined as an imagined state of thinking which strives to maintain social order; and an ideology can be defined as a system of ideas that strives to distort the realities of a society (Flichy, 2007, p. 7-9). Patrice Flichy argues that “the notion of a myth is often associated with that of a utopia” (2007, p. 8). When both a myth and utopia are combined, it is often presented like a dream of sorts, which can then also be associated with the notion of ideology (Flichy, 2007, p. 8). The relationship between myth, utopia and ideology is one that essentially leads one concept to snowball into the other. In the same sense, Zuckerberg’s business model for Facebook follows the same behaviour, by creating a myth, utopia and ide...
Read more

Spotify as a Coordinated Market Economy

Spotify first launched in 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden. Spotify is a music-streaming subscription service, in which users pay a premium every month and have full access to a large database of music, podcasts and radio stations.  In the way that Spotify rose to success, it is quite easy to see that the Swedish tech company behaves in the same way as its country’s economy. Sweden follows a Coordinated Market Economy (CME). Elements of a CME include strategic interaction, institutional support, access to capital is based on reputation, a sensitivity to long-term profitability, imperfect market conditions and strong industry relations (Hall and Soskice, 2004). In the same way, Spotify’s rise to success largely depended on the company slowly building its industry relations, reputation and forming a loyal consumer base. The creation of Spotify was also based on the premise of strategic interaction – adhering to the gap in the industry for a subscription-based music streaming serv...
Read more