Take Home Final Paper

Chuck Zink

12/17/09

Final Take Home Exam

Dr. Greene

Based upon the readings and findings discussed in Y. Dubalin's article “A City in a Building: Paris Subversions” and Multiplicity's “Home Factories: Elche Disseminations,” it becomes clear that a transformation taking place in the differentiation of domestic and work spheres in the cities of Paris, France and Elche, Spain. These cities have created a new type of cultural and individual hybrid identity for not only for the city itself but most importantly, the people living in these areas. In “A City in a Building: Paris Subversions” Chinese migrants in Paris have transformed the hotel “Les Olympiades” into its own completely function city. The building was constructed in the early 1970's, selling individual units with a capacity of 16,000 people. This real estate investment proved to be a failure in only a few months. However, in 1974 a group of Southeast Asian refugees began to inhabit the vacant units for reduced prices. Eventually being the majority living in the building, many began the process creating this community with in one complex. In Multiplicity's “Home Factories: Elche Disseminations,” the booming shoe industry established there has moved beyond the confines of a single factory. The industry is now taking on woman to work in their homes causing the work to no longer be concentrated in a one area, but spread throughout the entire city.

These actions have had a considerable impact on the people who inhabit both the “Les Olympiades” and the people of Elche, Spain. The Chinese migrants into France have taken on a complex task of creating a 'Real Chinatown' as described by Wang Shixiong, who came from China in 1976 and now a restaurant manager in this community. Transforming the building into three distinct areas, underground levels for storage, ground levels house places of employment, restaurants and pagodas, while keeping the upper levels for living, small workshops and places of worship, it truly is as described, 'a city in a building.' They have completely reworked the original intend of these buildings and given it new meaning by negotiating both their domestic life and their work life inside one facility. The process of negotiating the two is however balanced and supported by the lay out of the building, keeping living areas above and out of disruption from the work spaces. Living in the same building as being employed in, there is no doubt a constant reminder to these people of their work, which could overlap into a the domestic sphere resulting in unhappiness with this type of arrangement. This is one possible disadvantage to living life inside of this type of complex and has the possibility to viewed as isolationist, stunting cultural growth or exposure. With many immigrants coming to this area in the hope of opportunity, they continue to find more abandoned buildings to transform into small cities. This continued migration, in a hope to be a part of one of these independent communities, also alters the physical landscapes of this area in Paris. It gives the city this identity of hybridization and welcoming conceptions of the new, both in physical appearance and in cultural influence.

This hybrid identity is taken into a slightly different world when deal with Multiplicity's “Home Factories: Elche Disseminations.” Meaning that his shift in identity is only applied to woman of this area. They are now in the work force of their husbands and sons, who continue to have a a separation domestic and work life. The long established shoe industry of the area have employed the woman to work in their homes, thus giving the woman the further task of negotiating their work and domestic lives in the same building. Immediately an overlap of responsibility, which could be for many, too much to handle. However, it also calls upon the women of the area to be more than a repressed housewife for the very first time. We now begin to see a melding together of the two spheres, both with woman taking care of children as they sow, but with shoes stacks on front door ways and patios. This changes the landscape of the area, making it seem more centered on commerce and material production. Home become more like small factories, with machinery added to living room. As stated in the Multiplicity article, “Assembly and the final touches are no longer carried out with a single manufacturing building, but a network of production points that embrace the entire city.” (Multiplicity, 151) Through the choice to work in the homes, the woman of Elche are changing the physical and urban landscape of the city by creating a need for increased movement of materials through the street. The article goes on to discuss how the city is connected by white vans, moving between production points, therefore giving an identity of increased connectivity and reliability, especially on the part of the women. This could be viewed as an advantage or disadvantage of this type of negotiating. The employment of women in homes will get more work done and create a better domestic economy for the area, but it also forces a kind of dependency on the part of the women, who is already negotiating her professional and personal life.