Peter Brogan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Peter Brogan
Labor, human efforts to produce goods and services, is a key subject of geographic inquiry. The s... more Labor, human efforts to produce goods and services, is a key subject of geographic inquiry. The study of labor has, however, evolved theoretically from determinist treatments as a mere “factor of production” to a more contested agent in the formation of economic landscapes. Following a brief history of geography’s engagement with labor, we discuss four key themes in contemporary “labor geography”: agency, scale, class, and the state. We conclude with some recent theoretical developments and the future trajectory of labor geography as a field dedicated to analyzing the spatiality of work, workers, and workplaces.
Alternate Routes a Journal of Critical Social Research, 2013
The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien, 2013
Book by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin
This article draws on a comparative study of urban change and rank-and-file teacher rebellion in ... more This article draws on a comparative study of urban change and rank-and-file teacher rebellion in New York City and Chicago, to explore the contemporary dynamics of what Jamie Peck (2013) calls “austerity urbanism” and its relationship to a rebirth of a social justice, grassroots teacher unionism in US urban centres. Tracing the trajectories of one group of rank-and-file teacher dissidents in Chicago, it argues that municipal unions are uniquely situated to lead the fight against austerity urbanism and the crisis tendencies of contemporary capitalism. To do this, however, trade unions will need to be reinvented and a different form of working class politic forged, grounded both in and outside of the trade union movement. Only then may we see organized labour in North America contribute to a movement for radical and systemic change, which is key to building a more socially just urbanism and society more broadly. The case of the Chicago teachers is highly instructive for activists, both inside and outside of the North American labour movement.
Since 2008, austerity has dominated the public policy agenda across the political spectrum. acros... more Since 2008, austerity has dominated the public policy agenda across the political spectrum. across North america and Europe this has meant an emboldened radicalism from conservatives as new pressures to privatize public services, in particular health care, pensions and public education, coalesce with efforts to implement so-called right-to-work laws and the removal of public sector collective bargaining rights. Furthermore, the right to demonstrate and protest-the most basic of fundamental freedoms-has been severely constrained amidst hardening disciplinary and repressive state apparatuses. This remaking of social relations and institutional structures, however, has not been solely a matter of conservative class war, but has also been deepened and extended by liberals and social democrats with the backing of ruling class circles. Work for welfare initiatives, the weakening of employment standards legislation, attacks against social assistance minimums and the erosion of progressive taxation, once deemed central to the "new deal," are now deemed extravagant entitlements allegedly unaffordable in a new age of global capitalism (Pantich & gindin, 2012).
This article examines the role that transformations in the K-12 public education sector have play... more This article examines the role that transformations in the K-12 public education sector have played in the ongoing structural crisis of contemporary capitalism and the re/making of North American global cities. More specifically, it explores why and how teachers' unions have been at the centre of the neoliberalization of public school systems by drawing on a case-study analysis of Chicago, which has been an experimental ground for the reconstruction of urban governance, labour markets, and education. Like the marketization of public housing, education markets contribute to the knitting together of education policy and neoliberal urban development. Underlying the assault on public education, teachers, and their unions in the United States are the intermingling logics of capital accumulation and white supremacy. Although teachers' unions have often been complicit in the making of neoliberalism, they also represent the biggest potential challenge to its further advancement through the adoption of a model of social justice, grassroots unionism. Offering a powerful glimmer of hope is the revitalized Chicago Teachers Union who waged an effective-and widely supported-September 2012 strike.
Labor, human efforts to produce goods and services, is a key subject of geographic inquiry. The s... more Labor, human efforts to produce goods and services, is a key subject of geographic inquiry. The study of labor has, however, evolved theoretically from determinist treatments as a mere “factor of production” to a more contested agent in the formation of economic landscapes. Following a brief history of geography’s engagement with labor, we discuss four key themes in contemporary “labor geography”: agency, scale, class, and the state. We conclude with some recent theoretical developments and the future trajectory of labor geography as a field dedicated to analyzing the spatiality of work, workers, and workplaces.
Alternate Routes a Journal of Critical Social Research, 2013
The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien, 2013
Book by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin
This article draws on a comparative study of urban change and rank-and-file teacher rebellion in ... more This article draws on a comparative study of urban change and rank-and-file teacher rebellion in New York City and Chicago, to explore the contemporary dynamics of what Jamie Peck (2013) calls “austerity urbanism” and its relationship to a rebirth of a social justice, grassroots teacher unionism in US urban centres. Tracing the trajectories of one group of rank-and-file teacher dissidents in Chicago, it argues that municipal unions are uniquely situated to lead the fight against austerity urbanism and the crisis tendencies of contemporary capitalism. To do this, however, trade unions will need to be reinvented and a different form of working class politic forged, grounded both in and outside of the trade union movement. Only then may we see organized labour in North America contribute to a movement for radical and systemic change, which is key to building a more socially just urbanism and society more broadly. The case of the Chicago teachers is highly instructive for activists, both inside and outside of the North American labour movement.
Since 2008, austerity has dominated the public policy agenda across the political spectrum. acros... more Since 2008, austerity has dominated the public policy agenda across the political spectrum. across North america and Europe this has meant an emboldened radicalism from conservatives as new pressures to privatize public services, in particular health care, pensions and public education, coalesce with efforts to implement so-called right-to-work laws and the removal of public sector collective bargaining rights. Furthermore, the right to demonstrate and protest-the most basic of fundamental freedoms-has been severely constrained amidst hardening disciplinary and repressive state apparatuses. This remaking of social relations and institutional structures, however, has not been solely a matter of conservative class war, but has also been deepened and extended by liberals and social democrats with the backing of ruling class circles. Work for welfare initiatives, the weakening of employment standards legislation, attacks against social assistance minimums and the erosion of progressive taxation, once deemed central to the "new deal," are now deemed extravagant entitlements allegedly unaffordable in a new age of global capitalism (Pantich & gindin, 2012).
This article examines the role that transformations in the K-12 public education sector have play... more This article examines the role that transformations in the K-12 public education sector have played in the ongoing structural crisis of contemporary capitalism and the re/making of North American global cities. More specifically, it explores why and how teachers' unions have been at the centre of the neoliberalization of public school systems by drawing on a case-study analysis of Chicago, which has been an experimental ground for the reconstruction of urban governance, labour markets, and education. Like the marketization of public housing, education markets contribute to the knitting together of education policy and neoliberal urban development. Underlying the assault on public education, teachers, and their unions in the United States are the intermingling logics of capital accumulation and white supremacy. Although teachers' unions have often been complicit in the making of neoliberalism, they also represent the biggest potential challenge to its further advancement through the adoption of a model of social justice, grassroots unionism. Offering a powerful glimmer of hope is the revitalized Chicago Teachers Union who waged an effective-and widely supported-September 2012 strike.