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Constructing Work: Politics, Society and Architectural History on the Paris Building Site

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Societies under Construction

Abstract

Jacob Paskins examines how the extensive programme of building and infrastructure construction in the Paris region during the 1960s revealed social and political concerns that were not limited to the architectural and building trades. The chapter analyses how construction work was implicated in debates about national identity and progress, mediated by political discourse and mainstream media reports. Exploring how the Paris building site challenged representations that were imposed on it, the chapter also focuses on the organisation of construction work, problems faced by labour migrants and the campaigning activities of workers’ unions. Addressing the process of writing a history of the Paris building site, the chapter interrogates the methodological challenges faced by architectural historians when delving into the social and political realms of construction work.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All translations are by the author.

  2. 2.

    For films celebrating the achievements of the French construction industry, see, e.g., Allain (1966), Chateau (1967), Leridon (1969). For a discussion of the use and interpretation of French moving image archives, see Paskins (2010).

  3. 3.

    For debates about the need to increase the industrialisation of construction, see JO (1963) and Gall (1965).

  4. 4.

    The staging of construction workers has a long tradition in photography. For an analysis of how civil engineers in nineteenth-century France used photographs of construction as a means of managerial control, see Weiss (2015).

  5. 5.

    See, for example, interview with Lakhdar in Hervo and Charras (1971, p. 84).

  6. 6.

    For detailed analysis of the design and social experience of suburban housing estates, see Tellier (2007) and Cupers (2014).

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  1. University College London, London, UK

    Jacob Paskins

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  1. Jacob Paskins
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Correspondence to Jacob Paskins .

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  1. School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom

    Daniel J. Sage

  2. School of Business, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Chloé Vitry

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Paskins, J. (2018). Constructing Work: Politics, Society and Architectural History on the Paris Building Site. In: Sage, D., Vitry, C. (eds) Societies under Construction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73996-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73996-0_3

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