SPOTLIGHT EDMONTON, ALBERTA CANADA 95ST AND JASPER

AVENUE
CLASS CONFLICT, SOCIAL JUXTAPOSITIONS AND
DESIRE Jaswinder Gill Kevin Prasad
David Meirovich
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Slides 3-5…………………Marxism- Class Conflict /

False Consciousness & Dominant Ideologies

Slides 6-7.....................Desire

Slides 8-11……………….Habitus

Slides 12-15……………...Neglect & Exclusion

Slide 16…………………...Bibliography
Marxism / Class Conflict

The area in Edmonton, Alberta Canada in and around 108 Ave and 95 street is the perfect
location to display the disparity between classes which is overwhelmingly apparent. This
one very confined space is littered with homeless shelters and liquor stores offset by tall
banner advertisements, and mini-malls - all of which provoke powerful juxtapositions
regarding the standard of living in that area compared with surrounding areas. For proof
one only need travel a few blocks southwest to find oneself surrounded by countless
supermarkets and high class restaurants. Basically every major industry has found a
foothold in the area surrounding downtown Edmonton and come nighttime, the location is
quite the spectacle.
Marxism Continued…

It is clearly suggested that living a ‘normal’, ‘high class’ life is easy to attain and dominant in the
area – an idea which is not entirely true. One of Marx’s primary ideals of society revolved
around the idea of the struggle between the classes and the eventual conflict that will arise
as the gap between the two rises. The poorer working class and the homeless on 108
Avenue and 95 street are the ‘proletariat’ class according to Marx’s theory and the problems
they face are considered ‘proletarian problems’. The citizens in charge of funding
advertisements and setting public policy are the ‘bourgeoisie’ class. This class determines
how the area is treated and what can be displayed (or advertised) on the land because they
are usually the ones that own it. Ultimately this leads to the poorer proletariat (working)
class citizens residing under the rule of the bourgeoisie who set precedents and laws that
determine the social climate for the area. (Fowkes ,1976)
False Consciousness and Dominant
Ideology
There is no doubt that class division exists. Class conflict indeed exists even in modern
society. But why does it continually exist? Reasons behind this vary. Karl Marx stated that
the idea of false consciousness plays a factor in this scenario . False consciousness is an
ideology that is spread by dominant powers to the rest of society which are duped into
believing in the system brought forward to them, thus allowing capitalism to thrive
(Sturken Marita, and Lisa Cartwright.2009). But modernist theorists disagree with this
theory and instead believe that “class conflict in modern societies is no longer about
capitalism but about income distribution” (Stinchcome, Arthur,89). This income distribution
gap thus creates divisions amongst classes. The wealthier division is therefore in control of
the visuals and media produced in our city. Through this method they are able to push their
ideologies which therefore become the dominant ones, thus prompting the masses to
believe in it.
 Desire
Each year passes it continues to become more and more evident that we are completely defined by what
we own and how much of each thing we have. The concept of the consumer self and obsession over
consumption – leading to ‘pseudo individuality’ - has become an epidemic in the post-materialistic world of
the early 21st century. In our study of the Northeast corner of downtown Edmonton we noticed the
exploitation of desire and how it is being manipulated by the city to both hide (mask) the impoverished
areas surrounding the city core and to control the mind-set of people who find themselves trapped within
it. Visual cues are vital to our society’s dictation of society. Therefore visual advertising is one of the primary
vehicles for control over desire in this area. This is evidenced by the large number of banners and ads
scattered throughout the area. Advertising through these banners and ads tend to work best through
methods of abstraction. The high class ads in this area display the promise of a better future lifestyle and a
more comforting outcome for individuals trapped within this lower class area and lower class status.
 
 Desire Continued..
In addition, these advertisements strongly aid in distracting and drawing the attention of
people passing through the area. This could well be seen as an attempt to downplay the
disparity between status of the characters in the ads and the people inhabiting the
impoverished area. Throwing individuals into a state of abstract (skewed) reality en mass is a
method that society & media leaders use (through visual advertisement) to influence
people’s ‘dream factors’ and subsequently prolong innocence (or in this case: prolong
ignorance to the immediate problems in front of them).
Habitus

As time evolves, the emphasis on certain lifestyles have been magnified. This is evident through
the evolution of generations where aspirations have faded from being a certain profession,
to rather living a specific lifestyle. In our study of the northeast corner of downtown it
became evident that certain lifestyles were highly emphasized while those that did not
adhere to them were branded as outcasts.

 
Habitus Continued..

 In our analysis a few concepts became quite relevant; habitus and socialization. The
concept of habitus entails unconscious dispositions and preferences we share as social
subjects that are related to our class position, education, and social standing (Sturken
Marita, and Lisa Cartwright.2009). While socialization is where an individual acquires
identity and learns the norms, values, behaviour, and social skills appropriate to his or her
social position. We feel that these concepts have evolved into an emphasis on attaining a
certain class and social position rather than living the present one we fit into. These
“unconscious” dispositions we share are only realized through the conscious display the city

has provided for us .

HabitusContinued…

The magnification of higher class stores and restaurants are made possible through the not
so subtle lighting which unconsciously attracts the power of our look. This is done
specifically to attract our attention which would than appeal to our obsession of higher
class attainment. An obsession that has been unconsciously branded into our minds
through daily spoon fed visual cues (lighting).
 Habitus Continued…

The detrimental affect of not adhering to the socially acceptable lifestyle is that of neglect
and quietly being labelled as an outcast. This means that although the city of Edmonton has
not blatantly labelled the “lower” culture as outcasts, their conscious actions speak to the
dispositions and preferences we share. This is most evident through the way the homeless
shelters were portrayed at night, which was on the extreme end of the spectrum
comparative to the restaurants. A juxtaposition was so prevalent that only through the
conscious effort of the gaze could one locate the homeless shelters as they were deemed
non existent in the night
Hope mission at night
 Neglect And Social Exclusion
From my observation of downtown Edmonton it became apparent to me that juxtapositions of
classes exists in today's society. A good example of this is northeast downtown where low
class society and high class society are observed to be functioning in the same area. This
was evident from the images we collected which depict homeless people living in tents
across from large architectural government buildings and successful businesses such as
high class restaurants.

The evidence of neglect and social exclusion was transparent on the streets of downtown.
For instance, it was shocking to see big billboards of advertisements of upcoming
construction on new properties right next to a homeless person sleeping in a tent. As well
as comparing the condition of homeless shelters to conditions of new businesses on the
same street. The lack of funding for homeless shelters is evident of neglect of the lower
class.
Neglect and social exclusion
continued…

Another example, of neglect of the lower class that was observed on the street was how
people of higher class reacted to a homeless person. There was either no reaction and thus no
recognition of the homeless individual or the reaction was fuelled by discrimination. A recent
development in the news is a perfect example of discrimination against the lower class. For
example, member of the St. Albert community criticized a proposed Habitat for Humanity
project because he felt that it would increase crime in the community. He continued to state
that this proposal will “start a landslide of things that will turn southeast St. Albert into a low-
income area instead of middle class. Low-income families will have difficulty up-keeping the
proposed development, and in turn it will bring down the value of the surrounding houses and
this development will be hard for the families moving in. Being low income will make it
difficult for children to be accepted in local schools. Like it or not, the children of St. Albert are
high-standard children and have no place for low-income classmates”(Mckeen, 2010).
Neglect and Social Exclusion
Continued..
The concept of representation, which refers to the use of language and images to create meaning about the world
around us was used by Guillermo Vargas to depict how today's society neglects those of lower class and those in
need of help (Sturken and Cartwright 2009). In 2007, Guillermo Vargas took a dog off the street and put him as
part of a display exhibited at the Códice Gallery in Managua, Nicaragua. During the display, the dog, dubbed
"Natividad", was tied up without water or food .A slogan made from dog biscuits read, "Eres Lo Que Lees" ("You
Are What You Read), , right above the dog.

Vargas conducted this experiment because he wanted to test the public's reaction to the helpless dog in the gallery.
Vargas found out that none of the exhibition visitors intervened to stop the animal's suffering ,no one tried to free
the dog, give it food, call the police, or do anything for the dog..Vargas noted that society started to care about the
dog only after the suspicion of the dogs death and media attention surrounding the controversy. Vargas states that
this highlights peoples hypocrisy because no one cares about a dog that starves to death on the street , however
will react to the situation only when depicted by media. (Christensen, 2008)

This is contingent to today’s society in regards to lower class homeless people in downtown. For instance, all
though the media depicts that poverty and homelessness is on the rise and funding is required, in reality we
observed that society has been neglecting the homeless and socially excluding them to one area of town. So how
many homeless people need to die before our society really pays attention to the issue and does something about
it?
 Reference List

Fowkes, Ben. 1976. Karl Marx. Capital. Trans. London. Penguin Books

Sturken Marita, and Lisa Cartwright.2009.Practices of Looking: An introduction to visual culture. Oxford
University Press(12-15;56-71;275-277)

Christensen,Brett M.”Protests Against Starving Dog Art Exhibition.”2008.

Stinchcome, Arthur. Critical Sociology: Education, exploitation, and class consciousness. Spring88: 67

Mckeen, Scott. 2010. Letter speaks to feelings of many about low-income housing. Edmonton Journal, April
7.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Letter+speaks+feelings+many+about+income+housing/2771
799/story.html

Justification For Higher Education. http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/jfhe.jpg

Links of Interest:
http://www.connect2edmonton.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=16557
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Letter+speaks+feelings+many+about+income+hou
sing/2771799/story.html
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Social+housing+everyone+responsibility+just+inner+ci
ty/2776374/story.html