ABSTRACT
The domination of capital over labour is basic to the capitalist mode of production –
without it, after all, surplus value could not be extracted and accumulation would
disappear. All kinds of consequences flow from this, and the relation between labour
and the built environment can be understood only in terms of it. Perhaps the single
most important fact is that industrial capitalism, through the reorganisation of the work
process and the advent of the factory system, forced a separation between place of work
and place of reproduction and consumption.1 (emphasis added)
Walter Benjamin’s writings on Paris in the 19th century are the catalyst both for this chapter and much of the rest of the book.2 His work juxtaposes economic reality, intuition, and cultural fiction; it inspires extrapolation into unknown territories nearer the present day; it provokes a multidimensional view of the impact of modernity in the city.
