Capital Communes - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages church"ii Here, we see Benjamin's Marxist roots. Yet we also informed by his premonitory observance of the ideological drift of civil society toward what he argues is a phantasmagoria: a dream world of market based consumer-citizenship, that at once and the same time, the teleological mechanism by which authoritarianism is obscured.
If the Arcade stood as the preeminent example as a built space for inculcating the collective unconscious toward misrecognition of Napoleon Bonaparte's true intent, and in this case, that would be speculative market measures that began to stratify the populations of Paris and its environs by class, then Haussmann's project of urban expansion with its "lavish, self-glorification of the bourgeoise" with its "loans totaling hundreds of millions of francs" confrontation with those living in marginal spaces became the victims of nothing short of "engineered destruction."iii Nevertheless, Haussmann's project proceeded as a renewal strategy for Paris. He also employed a large scale constituency of laborers to participate in the construction of the rehabilitation; hence stabilizing his political position against confrontation with worker dissent. Rationale for this perspective was not unfounded as,
'the Parisian workers were better organized militarily than in any earlier rebellion; that the street widening undertaken during the administration of Napoleon III would necessarily work to their advantage, should the assault on the city succeed; that for the first time, the barricades would be defended by cannons and regularly organized troops."iv
The environmental impact of Haussmann's urban planning was pronounced in design, and also in terms of security. Haussmannization was distinctly a project of "strategic embellishment" that applied the concept of direct access to the workers' districts by opening up the thoroughfares for direct barricade. The system of open boulevards with a central node for systemization of public works and oversight also held promise for alleviation of poverty of districts such as Faubourg St-Marceau, through ready access to trade. The work commenced in the city centre surrounding Ile-de-la-Cit adjacent to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. He also extended the cross between the Louvre and the Tuileries, built the Boulevard Sbastopol. A site of leisure, Place du Chtelet became the center of the City's system of boulevards. Prior to his office, Paris was a city of moderate dimensions. Haussmann's new plan of advancement for the capital city resulted in the definition of neighborhoods, or modern system of 20 arrondissements.
Public transportation also saw expansion, and the "opening of Paris" to the market linked the main road network between Gare St-Lazare the Rue Auber and Gare du Nord (built between 1861 and 1864 by Jacques-Ignace Hittorff), Gare de Lyon and Gare Montparnasse the Rue de Rennes.
Tivoli Arcade, Paris
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