Metropolitics

Reimagining Skill

Nichola Lowe — 2021-10-12T05:00:00Z

Nichola Lowe argues that skill needs to be reimagined, not erased from efforts to strengthen the institutional infrastructure that is needed to deliver better-quality jobs to more workers. Drawing on claims outlined in her recent book, Putting Skill to Work, she presents uncertainty around skill as a generative material for shaping business recovery and growth, allowing worker-supporting institutions to promote changes that result in much better workplaces.
With urban economies rebounding and

- Debates / work, skills, labor markets, employment, jobs, businesses, urban economy

Open-Air Auto Shops: Subsistence Jobs in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Collectif Rosa Bonheur & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-10-25T04:00:00Z

The informal activities of street mechanics observed by Collectif Rosa Bonheur in northern France attest to a much larger subsistence economy at the margins of employment. According to this research collective, the spatial anchoring of these activities, on the borderline of informality, invites us to consider spaces that are often perceived as peripheral and relegated as “working-class centralities.”
In the vicinity of houses, in garages adjacent to dwellings, on sidewalks, in public squares

- From the Field / cars, poverty, precarity, Roubaix, Lille, Hauts-de-France, Northern France, France, working classes, working-class neighborhoods, informality, work, jobs, employment, Nord–Pas-de-Calais

Post–Amazon HQ2 Incentive Reform: We can have good deals—but not without transparency and meaningful public participation

Mary Donegan — 2019-05-21T05:00:00Z

What does the collapse of New York City's Amazon HQ2 deal mean for the future of economic development incentive policy?
Amazon's February 2019 decision to pull out of a plan to locate a headquarters in western Queens in New York City sparked a flurry of analysis from journalists. Did Amazon's decision signal a retrenchment from skyrocketing economic development incentive deals? Or was it a blip, reflecting Amazon's flatfooted public outreach, New York's poorly-structured incentive programming

- Debates / Queens, New York, economic development, economic development incentives, request for proposal, Amazon, United States, state, jobs, employment, tech economy

Projecting Supply and Demand for Middle-Skill Occupations in US States and Metro Areas

James Orr & Ofronama Biu — 2017-10-10T12:34:48Z

Analysts have long noted difficulties in quantifying and projecting skill mismatches in local labor markets. Workforce development providers and community colleges have led the way in responding to this challenge, particularly when it comes to middle-skill jobs, or jobs that require more than a high-school diploma but less than a bachelor's degree. In this article, James Orr and Ofronama Biu probe the methodologies local practitioners use to define middle-skill occupations and to understand the

- From the Field / United States, employment, work, methodology, metropolitan areas, education, training, university, workforce, middle-skill occupations, jobs, qualifications, community college, labor markets

Swept Away: Public Work and the Politics of Employment in New York City's Parks

John Krinsky & Maud Simonet — 2017-09-06T04:36:46Z

Upwards of 4,000 unionized civil-service workers once cleaned and maintained New York City's parks. Today about 1,800 such workers share this task with volunteers, employees of nonprofit organizations on contract with the city, community-service sentencees, and former welfare recipients doing temporary parks work in hopes of obtaining permanent positions. John Krinsky and Maud Simonet trace the evolving political economy of parks work in New York, demonstrating its impact on workers. They also

- From the Field / parks, civil service, green spaces, employment, work, New York, sexual harassment, trade unions, community service, volunteers, workfare

Jobs and geography: can the “functional hypercentrality” of Paris be an asset for the surrounding region?

Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & Élisabeth Tovar & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-02-20T06:33:49Z

In a context of increasing competition among global cities, is it possible that Paris's key asset is the spatial concentration of its strategic economic functions in the heart of the city? Lise Bourdeau-Lepage and Élisabeth Tovar, having observed the “functional hypercentrality” of the Paris metropolitan area, here consider the social and economic effects of public policy regarding the geographical distribution of jobs.
In the wake of the information revolution, the advent of new information

- Debates / segregation, Paris region, Paris, employment, metropolis

Is rising home ownership bad for employment?

Jean Bosvieux & Bernard Coloos & translated by Oliver Waine — 2011-11-09T06:00:00Z

Homeowners everywhere are less mobile than tenants. However, does home ownership have a negative effect on employment? This hypothesis forms the basis of policy recommendations recently formulated by a number of bodies, despite the fact that it is far from proven – indeed, it would appear to be refuted by existing studies.
All studies into residential mobility – whether in France or other industrialised countries – show that, all other things being equal, owner-occupiers tend to move home

- Debates / homeownership, housing, residential mobility, mobility, employment