The Political Economy of Suburbanization: In Pursuit of a Class Analysis

This article is a contribution to forging a political economy of su burbanization. Sociological analysis has focused on suburban communities, overlooking the importance of changes in the structures of employment in facili tating suburban community formation and growth. Dual labor market theory, a new institutional economic analysis, has emphasized the increasingly deliberate structuring of employment, especially by large corporations, without paying ap propriate attention to its effects on community formation, or to the role of com munity forces in constraining or challenging the prevailing employment struc ture. Important insights arise from comparing these empirical approaches within the framework of a Marxian class analysis. My objective is an analysis of subur banization that elaborates the fundamental significance of class divisions with an understanding of the role of labor market segmentation, community structures and forces, and the historical inheritance of ethnic and national cultures. I hope the analysis can also be useful for working class organizing in suburban com munities as part of building a socialist movement.