The Making of the Urban Nomad: Co-living, Place Resumes, and Class Formation in Los Angeles

• In Event: 4323 - Culture and Identity

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate the class formation of the Urban Nomad section of Guy Standing’s precariat. I argue that members of this forming Urban Nomad class employ particular spatial and cultural practices in order to adapt to macro-structural changes in the economy. Drawing upon an ethnographic study of Los Angeles’ PodShare co-living space, this article focuses on two of these spatial and cultural practices in particular: co-living and place resumes. Co-living here is understood as a spatial and cultural practice performed by members of the forming Urban Nomad class to actualize and make possible the mobility demanded of them by the shifting economy, an activity carried out within particular spaces and sites. I introduce the site of the co-living space which can best be characterized as a hybrid space of work, leisure, and domicile in the context of post-industrial economic restructuring and the emergence of the precariat. This site is uniquely suited to the wants and needs of the urban nomad class, acting as a space through which highly mobile and precarious individuals flow as they attempt to connect to the city and the life opportunities it offers. I introduce the term “place resumes” to describe the class-based cultural and identity work that is produced in hybrid live-work spaces. The place resume is produced through the sharing of travel narratives within this field of co-living, representing this class-specific mobility both between and within cities. These representations then become emergent cultural products used by Urban Nomads to represent themselves to others, signify distinction within their class, set authentic ends for consumption and action, make meaning of their geographic flight, and anchor their identities. I argue that this leads to the constitution of a new habitus unique to this class which will guide the future actions of this class for-itself.

Author

• Jeffrey L. Sternberg, Northeastern University