The Contemporary Relevance of Frederick Engel's Critique of 'Haussmann'.

by Darsha Indrajith, 2012

Frederick Engels’s critique of the ‘Haussmann’ method forms a part of his discussion on an issue that is applicable to many cities today – the housing problem. Thus, it is evident that the problem that Engels discusses is relevant today, but so is the method that is used to deal with it, ‘Haussmann’, and Engels’s critique of it. In The Housing Question though, Engels speaks mainly of housing in relation to the working-class and their employers. In most modern cities though, housing is also a problem for the unemployed. Therefore, in order to make Engels’s critique more relevant to today’s housing issue, the scope of his argument should be broadened to include the unemployed. The general ideas and critiques that Engels articulates can be easily moulded to include the unemployed.