The arcades were constructed in Paris from 1822 to 1837. Arcades were a recent invention of industrial luxury built with glass-roofed extending through whole bodies of a building whose owners have joined together for the enterprise. Everything was clear and noticeable.
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Arcades were the boom in the textile trade. It was first used to keep the large stocks of merchandise for the display. The arcades were centers of the commerce for luxury items. The condition of the development of the arcades was first for living with the small houses but later, when it became famous they were used for the exhibition hall.
Fourier or Arcades
Benjamin glorifies the arcades because they become the means for the loss of aura. They are residential places for the Flaneur who observes the contingent activities of the city people and their environment. Napoleon third was the emperor of France who ruled from 1852 to 1970.
During his tenure, Haussmann was appointed as a mayor of Paris. The arcades were demolished and shopping malls, departments, and stores were established. Some of the arcades were still there in Paris.
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Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier was the rich physicist who created phalanstery. The phalanstery was the city composed of arcades. It is also called Fourierist Utopia which was possible because of the advent of the machines. Fourier developed the concept of Phalanx because He thought that those arcades would provide the opportunity to the people to be united and fight against those capitalists system and values. He advocated for justice, equality and emancipation for the sake of marginalized people. He notices the potentiality of the revolution. So, he brings the two entities- arcades and Fourier together.
Features of the Fourier
One of the features of the Fourier’s Utopia was that it favored nature and humankind instead of exploitation of nature by man. Unfortunately, later on, this concept got changed. The men who were workers exploited by their owners of the means of production. Though the exhibition was considered to be the festivals of joy for the workers, it turned out to be the means of exploitation. “Do not touch the items on display” was the slogan of the world exhibition.
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The fashion was the popular tool for which people would make the visit to the world marketplaces. This practice turned into the culture which made the commodities to be worshiped and celebrated.
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It also made living bodies inorganic. The world exhibition thus provided access to the phantasmagoric meaning that a person enacts in order to be distracted from another world.
