Opening the Black BoxSpace, Time and the

Geography of the Labor Process

Presentation to Geography SeminarWhat’s Space Got to Do With It?

Making Geography Relevant in the 21st Century

September 21, 2011

Chris BennerUniversity of California, Davis

ccbenner@ucdavis.edu

Outline

The Job CrisisGeography to the rescue!?!Towards a new social compact?

Dec

-07

Jan-

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-09

Jan-

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Feb

-11

Mar

-11

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-11

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-11

Jun-

11Ju

l-11

Aug

-11

93.00

94.00

95.00

96.00

97.00

98.00

99.00

100.00

101.00

Job-less Recovery:U.S. GDP and Employment, 2007 recession

EmploymentQuarterly GDP

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748 92.00

93.00

94.00

95.00

96.00

97.00

98.00

99.00

100.00

101.00

102.00

Index of Employment Change Following Cycle Peak

Dec-07

Dec-69

Nov-73

Jan-80

Jul-81

Jul-90

Mar-01

Source: BLS, CES, Employment, Hourse and Earnings. Series CES0000000001

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 98.00

99.00

100.00

101.00

102.00

103.00

104.00

105.00

106.00

107.00

108.00

Job Less Recovery:Disturbing Trends

Feb-61Nov-70Mar-75Jul-80Nov-82Mar-91Nov-01Jun-09

Source: BLS, CES, Employment, Hourse and Earnings. Series CES0000000001

Ind

ex o

f U

.S.

Em

plo

ym

en

t C

han

ge i

n 3

6 M

on

ths F

oll

ow

ing

Recessi

on

Tro

ug

h

Typical proposed solutions

2000 2001 2001 2002 2002 2003 2003 2004 2004 2005 2005 2006 2006 2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 2009 2010 2010 2011 3,500

4,000

4,500

5,000

5,500

6,000

Monthly Hires and Separations, 2000-2011

New Hires

Separations

,000

s

Q03

Q04

Q01

Q02

Q03

Q04

Q01

Q02

Q03

Q04

Q01

Q02

Q03

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Q01

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Q02

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Q01

Q02

Q03

Q04

Q01

Q02

Q03

Q04

Q01

Q02

Q03

Q04

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

-1

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

Quarterly Business Employment Dynamics, 2000-2010

Gross Job Gains (Left Axis)

Gross Job Losses (Left Axis)

% Job Gains (Right Axis)

% Job Loss (Right Axis)

,000

s

Per

cen

t

19481951195419571960196319661969197219751978198119841987199019931996199920022005200820110.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

45.0

Average Weeks Unemployed

Average Weeks Unemployed

Source: BLS, CPS, Series LNS13008275

1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Average Duration of Unemployment by Decade

Weeks

Source: BLS, CPS, Series LNS13008275

Walt, Carmen De Navas, Bernadette Proctor and Jessica Smith (2011) Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010, p60-239, Current Population Reports, Consumer Income (U.S. Census Bureau), http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf

1973

1974

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1989

1990

1991

1992

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1994

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2000

2001

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2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

Wages at the high end are growing fasterChange in real hourly wages by wage percentile,

1973-2009

Ind

ex (

1973=

100

)

Source: EPI analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Outgoing rotations group.

95th90th

80th

50th20th10th

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

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1989

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2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

The rich are growing, while the bottom half loses ground

Change in real hourly wages for men by wage percentile, 1973-2009

Ind

ex (

1973

=10

0)

Source: EPI analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Outgoing rotations group.

95th

90th

80th

50th

20th

10th

1947

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1953

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50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Wages and compensation stagnating: Hourly wage and compensation growth for

production/non-supervisory workers and productivity, 1947-2009

Ind

ex (

19

47

= 1

00

)

Average hourly compensa-tion

Average hourly wage

Source: EPI analysis of Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Productivity

1947195019541958196219651969197319771980198419881992199519992003200720100.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

Components of Total Personal Income, 1947-2011

Wage and salary disbursements

Supplements to wages and salaries

Income on Assets

Personal Transfer Receipts (e.g. Social Security, Medicare, UI, Veteran's benefits, Other)

Farm Proprietors' Income

Nonfarm Proprietors' Income

Rental Income

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2011/01/art3full.pdf

19

13

19

17

19

21

19

25

19

29

19

33

19

37

19

41

19

45

19

49

19

53

19

57

19

61

19

65

19

69

19

73

19

77

19

81

19

85

19

89

19

93

19

97

20

01

20

050%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Top 1% (incomes above $368,000 in 2008)

Top 5-1% (incomes between $153,000 and $368,000)

Top 10-5% (incomes between $109,000 and $153,000)

Sh

are

of

tota

l in

co

me

ac

cru

ing

to

ea

ch

gro

up

Pittsburgh steel work in the 1950s

Steel-production, material transformation

Work, job, career and generational stability

Single employer largely controlled labor process

Union—clear role in negotiating work and employment conditions

Silicon Valley in the 1990s

Information transformation 87% of all job growth 1990-2001

in firms that didn’t exist in 1990. In driving industry clusters, newly

established firms accounted for 260,000 new jobs, while firms that existed in 1990 lost 120,000

Top 100 “half-life” of about 7 years.

Median job tenure: 30 months, Market-mediated “employability”

management; networked production

ISP Customer Service in 2006 Information Processing Agents in South Africa, interacting

with internet service provider customers across the U.S.

Five corporate ‘employers’ in two countries ISP-US SA Computer Company 2 different temporary help firms 1 joint venture ‘legal employer’

Labor process driven by real-time benchmarking across at least 6 more companies and 4 countries

0 1,500 0 in 3 years

Rethinking economic institutions

Geographic analysis of informational cities & economies

Networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and splintering urbanism

Corporations ≈ legal entities and flexible platforms for organizing temporary production systems

Networks and value chains Clusters, relational assets, untraded

interdependencies, communities of practice… Networked spatial processes and evolution over

time are key!Geographical analysis of informational labor

process …?

Labor process

WORK

EMPLOYMENT

TIMESPACELabor

Process

SWET-Dimensions of labor process

WORK

EMPLOYMENT

TIMESPACE

SPACE (of labor process)

Industrial economyTerritorially basedConsistent &

coherent institutional governance

Informational economy

Tele-mediated space & territorial space

Network basedInconsistent and

multiple institutional governance

Def: Material support for time-sharing social practices. (Territorial and tele-mediated)

WORK

Industrial economy Predictability and stability

in work demands Incremental changes in

human capacities required for work

Productivity of material manipulation critical for success

Informational economy Structural volatility and

unpredictability in work demands

Rapid and discontinuous change in requirements for work

Human reflexivity (innovation) critical for competitive success

Def: Actual activities people do at work, including skills, information, knowledge, tools, technology, and social relations.

EMPLOYMENT

Industrial economy

‘Standard’ employment Long-term, full-

time, year round, one-to-one

Taylorist management

Informational economy

Individualization of employment

Mediated employment

Mediated and self-directed management

Def: Relationship between employer and employee including compensation and management systems

TIME (of labor process)

Industrial economy Economic time shaped by

continuous, relatively predictable growth trajectories and cyclical downturns

Institutional framework enabled separation between work/non-work times, and human-time enabling labor processes

Informational economy Economic time shaped by

lumpy, discontinuous, unpredictable, FAST and volatile production cycles

Career trajectories more multi-institutional and discontinuous

Work/non-work times increasingly blurred

Def: Temporal dimensions of human activity and social relations in the labor process (events, sequence, speed, cycles).

Analyzing the labor process

FIRMS

Labor Process W

ORKERS

THE STATEInfrastructure, Regulation and Enforcement

(Scale)

Dynamics of Competition

& Cooperation(Sector,

Territory, Networks,

Governance,…)

WT

E

S

Dynamics of Competition

& Cooperation(Race, ClassGender, Age,

NetworksTerritory,

Governance,…)

Labor Market Intermediaries

SWET Analysis of Labor Process

Silicon Valley and Milwaukee labor markets Quality of intermediaries in career outcomes Guilds as soft-infrastructure in innovation Regional leadership and governance

South Africa tele-mediated work Industry strategy versus job attraction Career ladders and upgrading

U.S. newspaper journalists and sales staff Disconnection between quality and revenue Hierarchical management and stagnation Transferable skills and associate membership

Job Crisis solution?

The old social compact Workplace compromise—work control versus

employment stability Nationalist Keynesianism—labor stability and

macro-economic demandNew social compact?

Must ensure economic growth and social stability Must solve dilemmas of multiple stakeholders Likely to emerge out of existing experimental

initiatives

Globalized regions as the new workplace

Important spatial dimension of critical labor process activities Lifelong learning and innovation Untraded inter-dependencies Production and social reproduction

U.S. metros: 84% of population, 91% of GDP

Regional innovation systems around the globe

Workplace (regional) governance

Employer associations shaping collective work processes Innovation systems Social and physical infrastructure

investment Quality of life initiatives/creative class

Some public sector engagement Public/private partnerships Governance collaboration

Regional worker organizations…

Building power in the regional labor market, in both formal and informal ways

Face serious challenges in reaching truly disadvantaged workers

Limited power and bargaining ability

Guild-like structures: Building stability through regional, occupationally-

based communities Improving employment outcomes through building

common mobility channels

Regional unionism—SBCLC/Working Partnerships Community/social movement unionism focused on region Social reproduction

Health Care Housing Public Investment

Governance Labor Community Leadership Institute Boards, commissions, elected officials Agenda, not individuals

Regional worker organizations…

Many other examples around the country

WRTP-PEO LAANE “Building a City of

Justice” Denver/FRESC Georgia STAND-UP ……

Regional worker organizations…

Community unionism and workers centers

Community-based and community-led organizations that engage in a combination of service, advocacy, and organizing to provide support to low-wage workers.

Regional worker organizations…

Stock-options and residualsIndividual wage versus social wage

Problems of socialized work and individualized employment

Need to focus on livelihoods, not jobs Single-payer universal health Pension reform Life-long learning—e.g. LILAs

Skills mismatch or institutional failure? Re-employment insurance Restructure UI

New employment policies and practices…?

What’s space got to do with it?

The notion of a ‘job’ is an a-spatial, static conception that hinders our ability to promote economic innovation or social well-being

Spatio-temporal analysis pushes us instead to think about promoting community-based careers in the regional workplace, with win-win-win opportunities

Thank you!!