Heterotopias of Production Unveiling the Everydayness of the Cypriot Economy
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Abstract
In the representation of the Cypriot reality there are areas of social life, particularly in places of labour where a group of people act as a working class, which are not part of our symbolic universe, a universe which has suppressed under its glamorous appearance the reality of toil and harsh labour. The effects that these places have on the economy and the social relations are nonetheless real. To demonstrate the effects, two cases are examined: A fast food industry and a telephone survey firm. Through a workplace level analysis, these places of social production are examined as heterotopias, points of passage of economic and social ordering. The article aims to ‘show’ these places and furthermore to point that the heterotopias of production might hold the key to understanding what dominant strategies of dealing with the crisis through development might include as a future.
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Cypriot economy, heterotopia, services, fast food industry, call centres, labour, production, post-Fordism, class
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Female worker (anon.) Interview by author, 5 December 2013.
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