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Political Economies of Day Labour: Regulation and Restructuring of Chicago's Contingent Labour Markets

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  • Nik Theodore

    (Urban Planning and Policy Program and the Center for Urban Economic Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, 412 S. Peoria Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA, theodore@uic.edu)

Abstract

Day labour and other forms of temporary, casualised and precarious employment lie at the centre of an emergent employment regime that is rewriting labour market rules in major US cities. Flexibilisation of work, processes of regional industrial restructuring and uneven development at the urban scale interact to create the conditions for the spread of low-wage contingent employment. The spread of contingent work has pursued a path of least resistance, destabilising and undermining the already difficult conditions in low-wage labour markets. This has contributed to the reproduction and reinforcement of patterns of labour market segmentation, racial polarisation and social exclusion within urban labour markets. This paper examines the restructuring of urban employment regimes through the lens of low-wage, temporary employment and its attendant social division of labour at the urban scale. The aim is two-fold: first, to examine the ways in which a 'regime of precarious employment' has been embedded within a regional growth model; and, secondly, to describe emerging forms of labour market regulation that are associated with this employment regime.

Suggested Citation

  • Nik Theodore, 2003. "Political Economies of Day Labour: Regulation and Restructuring of Chicago's Contingent Labour Markets," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(9), pages 1811-1828, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:40:y:2003:i:9:p:1811-1828
    DOI: 10.1080/0042098032000106618
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1999. "The High-Pressure U.S. Labor Market of the 1990s," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 30(1), pages 1-88.
    2. Jamie Peck & Nik Theodore, 2001. "Contingent Chicago: Restructuring the Spaces of Temporary Labor," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 471-496, September.
    3. repec:fth:prinin:416 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Jamie Peck, 2002. "Labor, zapped/growth, restored? Three moments of neoliberal restructuring in the American labor market," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 179-220, April.
    5. Lawrence Katz & Alan Krueger, 1999. "The High-pressure U.S. Labor Market of the 1990s," Working Papers 795, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    6. Nik Theodore & Jamie Peck, 2002. "The Temporary Staffing Industry: Growth Imperatives and Limits to Contingency," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(4), pages 463-493, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Marc Doussard & Jamie Peck & Nik Theodore, 2009. "After Deindustrialization: Uneven Growth and Economic Inequality in “Postindustrial” Chicago," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(2), pages 183-207, April.
    2. Edwin J. Meléndez & M. Anne Visser & Nik Theodore & Abel Valenzuela Jr., 2014. "Worker Centers and Day Laborers’ Wages," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(3), pages 835-851, September.
    3. Jamie Peck & Nik Theodore, 2007. "Flexible recession: the temporary staffing industry and mediated work in the United States," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 31(2), pages 171-192, March.
    4. Jamie Peck & Nik Theodore, 2008. "Carceral Chicago: Making the Ex‐offender Employability Crisis," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 251-281, June.

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