BY MARC DOUSSARD Risky work and low pay shouldn’t co-exist. Economics textbooks and the public policies they support treat high pay—whether it’s an hourly wage, a stock option, or a lofty salary—as necessary compensation for the risks that befall people on the job. Without raising hourly pay well into the double digits, unpleasant or physically … More Covid-19 and the struggle at the bottom of the labor market
Harris Fine Block, Broome and Orchard Streets, New York (1898 and 1901). Hornberger & Straub, architects. These facades are typical of many immigrant-built tenements of this period. Recently rehabilitated, they command high rents in an increasingly desirable neighborhood. Photograph by Sean Litchfield. BY ZACHARY J. VIOLETTELecturer, Parsons/The New School of Design As I was finishing the … More American xenophobia and the roots of the housing crisis
BY AMANDA HURONAssistant professor of interdisciplinary social sciences at the University of the District of Columbia On Christmas Eve 1977, the working-class residents of an apartment complex in Washington, D.C., all received eviction notices. They had 90 days to get out; the owner of the complex wanted to rip it down and replace it with … More Carving out the Commons: Fighting Displacement in the Capitalist City
Fast-food workers, university workers, students, janitors, retail workers, and airportworkers rally on April 15, 2015, near the University of Minnesota to demand a $15/hourminimum wage.Image via Wikimedia Commons. BY MARC DOUSSARDRecipient of the 2015 Paul Davidoff Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning for his book Degraded Work The list of cities and state … More Fight for 15 shines spotlight on harsh daily realities for low-wage workers
The streets of New Orleans are pictured Aug. 30, 2005, in the aftermath of HurricaneKatrina and the city’s levee failures. Ten years later, much commentary has surfaced,but what of it has effectively addressed the event’s social injustices? BY JOHN (JAY) ARENAAssistant professor of sociology at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island … More Whose History Will Be Commemorated? New Orleans, Katrina, and the Continuing Struggle for A People’s Reconstruction
Frank Paul, “Flying Man,” on the cover of Amazing Stories 3, no. 5 (August 1928). BY ADNAN MORSHEDAssociate professor of architecture and architectural history at the Catholic University of America A hundred years have passed since the world’s first scheduled passenger airline service. In Florida, on January 1, 1914, a Benoist XIV airboat flew from … More How early aviation inspired American utopianism
Lance Wyman, designer, Mexico ’68 logo, 1968 BY LUIS M. CASTAÑEDAAssistant professor of art history at Syracuse University A recent analysis of financial data provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) attempted to quantify how much the Olympic brand is worth today. The analysis, in many ways a problematic one, found it to be worth … More The continuing influence of the Mexico ’68 Olympics brand
A Los Angeles freeway in 2009. In his new book, Eric Avila digs into thecultural history of the U.S. interstate highway program.Image via Creative Commons. BY ERIC AVILAProfessor of history, Chicano studies, and urban planning at UCLA——- Avila is the author of The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City, which … More Racial inequality remains etched into the very foundation of the U.S. interstate highway program and its cities.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Poverty Bill (also known as the Economic Opportunity Act) on Aug. 20, 1964, while press and supporters of the bill look on. LBJ Library photo by Cecil Stoughton, available via Creative Commons. BY JENNA M. LOYDAssistant professor of public health policy and administration, Joseph J. Zilber School of Public … More War, poverty, and the War on Poverty: 50 years later
View of Gamboa de Baixo, a neighborhood in the Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia, which is known for its Afro-Brazilian culture and street carnival. It is also known as Brazil’s “capital of happiness.” BY KEISHA-KHAN Y. PERRYAssistant professor of Africana studies at Brown University Gamboa de Baixo is a neighborhoodin the northeastern Brazilian cityof Salvador, … More “People are born here and only leave here when they die": On forced land eviction in Salvador, Brazil.
