Public Spaces as Loci of Education and Identity Building. Paul Maerky and the Lives of Messengers and Apprentices in Geneva’s Horological District, 1871–1876

Abstract

In Memoires of a cabinotier (Memoir of a watchmaker), a 60-year history of the Genevan watch manufacture (1931), the author Paul Maerky recalls his early years apprenticing in Saint-Gervais, Geneva’s horological district, better known as La Fabrique. Located in the heart of Geneva on the right bank of the river Rhone, the Saint-Gervais district established itself as a major Swiss center of horological production spanning the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Maerky’s autobiography is a lively and detailed account of apprenticed life in Saint-Gervais from 1871 to 1876. Drawing from this narrative source, this chapter discusses the Saint-Gervais apprenticeship system as a multisited educational phenomenon, whereby public spaces are conceptualized as an extension of the workshop or the habitual locus of horological knowledge and skill acquisition. This case study of the Saint-Gervais horological craft community in the 1870s analyzes the manner in which youthful apprentices interact with public spaces. Through the physical exploration of the district and its various educational loci, apprentices acquire spatial and relational knowledge. This chapter also discusses the metaphorical meanings assigned to places and their educational function within the context of nineteenth century watchmaking apprenticeship, during which apprentices undertake a metaphorical quest which takes them from childhood into adulthood as full-fledged members of the Genevan watchmaking community. In addition, this case study discusses the function of practical jokes as social mechanisms that regulate youth’s interaction with public spaces. As alternative educational loci, public spaces serve threefold educational functions: (1) to federate an otherwise heterogeneous working-class population around a common identity delineated by known physical and cultural boundaries; (2) to promote apprentice autonomy and foster distrust vis-a-vis outsiders; and (3) to create the setting for youth socialization through play or conflict. This chapter comments on alternative educational loci as relayed by Paul Maerky’s memoir, which include the streets, public fountains, the road to school, and eateries.