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Contingent Chicago: Restructuring the Spaces of Temporary Labor

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  • Jamie Peck
  • Nik Theodore

Abstract

Hiring‐halls, specializing in the placement of day‐laborers in temporary jobs, have in recent years been proliferating along major transport arteries in Chicago's low‐income neighborhoods. This article examines the phenomenon of low‐wage temporary work in Chicago from the perspective of the principal institutional actors in these highly ‘flexibilized’ or ‘contingent’ labor markets – the ‘temp’ agencies. Particular emphasis is placed on the labor‐market effects of temp‐agency strategies, both in respect to patterns of labor segmentation and in terms of the spatial (re)constitution of urban job markets. It is suggested that temp agencies are actively engaged in both the exploitation and facilitation of contingent labor‐market conditions. In this sense, they are assuming important new roles as privatized ‘labor‐market intermediaries’, with apparently deleterious effects for job security and social segregation in the lower reaches of urban labor markets. Their strategies can also be related to the social and geographic restructuring of these job markets, because the growth and polarization of temp employment has been associated with a ‘hardening’– and indeed ‘stretching’– of extant ethnic, gender and spatial inequalities. Des bureaux d'embauche, spécialisés dans le placement de journaliers sur des postes temporaires, ont récemment proliféré le long des grands axes de transport dans les quartiers défavorisés de Chicago. Cet article étudie le phénomène du travail temporaire à faible revenu dans cette ville, et ce, du point de vue des principaux acteurs institutionnels sur ces marchés du travail hautement ‘flexibilisés’ ou ‘aléatoires’: les agences de travail temporaire. Il insiste sur les conséquences des stratégies de ces agences pour le marché de l'emploi, à la fois au niveau des schémas de segmentation du travail et en termes de (re)constitution spatiale des marchés du travail urbains. Aussi peut‐on suggérer que ces agences sont activement impliquées dans l'exploitation et la facilitation des conditions aléatoires du marché du travail. En ce sens, elles jouent un rôle important et nouveau comme ‘intermédiaires du marché du travail’ privatisés, avec des effets apparemment néfastes pour la sécurité de l'emploi et la ségrégation sociale dans les circuits inférieurs des marchés urbains. Leurs stratégies peuvent aussi être liées à la restructuration sociale et géographique de ces marchés, la croissance et la polarisation de l'emploi temporaire ayant ètè associées à un ‘durcissement’, et assurément à une ‘extension’, des inégalités existantes au plan ethnique, spatial et des sexes.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:25:y:2001:i:3:p:471-496
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.00325
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    Citations

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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. William C. Terry, 2009. "Working on the Water: On Legal Space and Seafarer Protection in the Cruise Industry," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(4), pages 463-482, October.
    3. Linda McDowell & Esther Rootham & Abby Hardgrove, 2016. "The Production of Difference and Maintenance of Inequality: The Place of Young Goan Men in a Post-Crisis UK Labour Market," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 108-124, March.
    4. Annette Bernhardt & Michael W. Spiller & Nik Theodore, 2013. "Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(4), pages 808-832, July.
    5. Rutvica Andrijasevic & Devi Sacchetto, 2017. "‘Disappearing workers’: Foxconn in Europe and the changing role of temporary work agencies," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(1), pages 54-70, February.
    6. Michael Bloor & Helen Sampson, 2009. "Regulatory enforcement of labour standards in an outsourcing globalized industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(4), pages 711-726, December.
    7. Nichola Lowe & Greg Schrock & Ranita Jain & Maureen Conway, 2021. "Genesis at work: Advancing inclusive innovation through manufacturing extension," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(3), pages 224-241, May.
    8. 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.
    9. Linda Mcdowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2009. "Precarious Work and Economic Migration: Emerging Immigrant Divisions of Labour in Greater London's Service Sector," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 3-25, March.
    10. Ashley Baber, 2024. "Labour Market Engineers: Reconceptualising Labour Market Intermediaries with the Rise of the Gig Economy in the United States," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(3), pages 723-743, June.
    11. Waad K. Ali & K. Bruce Newbold, 2021. "Gender, Space, and Precarious Employment in Canada," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 112(5), pages 566-588, December.
    12. Paul Cheshire, 2009. "Policies for Mixed Communities," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 32(3), pages 343-375, July.
    13. David Biggs, 2006. "The Decline of the Temporary Worker: A Regional Perspective," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 21(3), pages 249-263, August.
    14. Stephan J. Goetz & Sundar S. Shrestha, 2009. "Explaining Self‐Employment Success and Failure: Wal‐Mart Versus Starbucks, or Schumpeter Versus Putnam," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(1), pages 22-38, March.
    15. Cathy Yang Liu & Ric Kolenda, 2012. "Counting and Understanding the Contingent Workforce," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(5), pages 1003-1025, April.
    16. Di van den Broek & William Harvey & Dimitria Groutsis, 2016. "Commercial migration intermediaries and the segmentation of skilled migrant employment," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(3), pages 523-534, June.
    17. Rachel G McKane & David J Hess, 2022. "Ridesourcing and urban inequality in Chicago: Connecting mobility disparities to unequal development, gentrification, and displacement," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(3), pages 572-592, May.
    18. Tom Barratt & Caleb Goods & Alex Veen, 2020. "‘I’m my own boss…’: Active intermediation and ‘entrepreneurial’ worker agency in the Australian gig-economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1643-1661, November.
    19. 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.
    20. Roos Pijpers, 2009. "European Labour Markets And The Cultural‐Economic Geography Of Flexwork," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 100(1), pages 121-126, February.
    21. Christina Purcell & Paul Brook & Rosemary Lucas, 2011. "Between Keeping Your Head Down and Trying to Get Noticed: Agency Workers in French Car Assembly Plants," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 22(2), pages 169-187.
    22. Linda McDowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2008. "Internationalization and the Spaces of Temporary Labour: The Global Assembly of a Local Workforce," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(4), pages 750-770, December.
    23. Norma M Rantisi & Deborah Leslie, 2021. "In and against the neoliberal state? The precarious siting of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) as counter-movement in Montreal, Quebec," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 349-370, March.

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