Doctoral Dissertation Research: Searching for Working Class Politics: Labor, Community, and Urban Power in Silicon Valley

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, neoliberal urban restructuring characterized by devolution, fiscal crises, and increased interurban competition for investment has caused cities to prioritize development policies at the expense of social welfare expenditures in a move dubbed "urban entrepreneurialism." Scholarship on urban politics has tended assume the negation of social welfare as a salient agenda in local politics. At the same time, class categories, particularly the "working class," has increasingly been seen as an irrelevant category in urban politics. The purpose of this doctoral dissertation research project is to understand the development of a labor- and community-based movement for living wage, affordable housing, and health-care reforms in Silicon Valley since the early 1980s in relation to local political context and neoliberal urban restructuring. The project asks the following questions: (1) Why has there been a growing politics of redistribution centered on the local state despite neoliberal urban restructuring? (2) How have activists' demands and strategies been shaped by urban entrepreneurialism? (3) How have the political axes of class, race and community been implicated in these struggles? (4) How has local political structure influenced the outcome of reform efforts? Mapping of basic socioeconomic indicators will locate reform demands in the context of growing socioeconomic polarization and the formation of low-wage, predominantly immigrant working-class communities in Silicon Valley. Focusing on the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County, in-depth interviews with leaders of key organizations, community activists, and local policymakers will be triangulated with a review of archives, public records, and the local press to reconstruct reform strategies, their interaction with political-economic context, and outcomes of different activities. The student expects to demonstrate that social welfare has been firmly placed on local policy agendas by union- and community-based activism in Silicon Valley and that this activism constitutes a nascent regional working-class politics. Also under investigation is whether the new politics have been shaped by fiscal restructuring and local political structure in ambiguous, contradictory ways. This study fills a gap in urban studies on the social and political geography of Silicon Valley, a region celebrated for its technological and economic dynamism. It does so in a manner that reveals the problem of inadequate wages and access to housing, health care, and other necessities faced by low wage workers in high tech regions. While economic and political trends have severely hampered social welfare and redistribution at all levels of government in the U.S., rising economic inequality over the last quarter of a century has generated serious discontents on the part of low wage workers. This study investigates how these discontents have been politically expressed, not only in terms of strategies and demands, but also in terms of mobilization based on certain group identities. This research is expected to bring to the study of urban geography a renewed exploration of the linkage between workplace and residence in informing class interest. This research has potential implications for policymakers interested in the problem of growing socioeconomic inequality. This research also has potential implications for social movements by identifying the forces that constrain and enable political activism. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.