Professor Emeritus of Economics Department of Social Sciences Affiliate Faculty, Women and Gender Studies Program University of Michigan-Dearborn
Diversity Scholar National Center for Institutional Diversity University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Faculty Affiliate University of Michigan Poverty Solutions University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
2011-2017 Director Center for Labor and Community Studies University of Michigan-Dearborn 2007-2017 Director Urban and Regional Studies Program University of Michigan-Dearborn 2000-2007 Founding Director Center for the Study of Automotive Heritage University of Michigan-Dearborn
1998-2001 Associate Dean College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters University of Michigan-Dearborn
1996-2001 Director Distance Learning Program UAW-Ford University* College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters University of Michigan-Dearborn [*Awarded 1999 Computerworld Smithsonian Laureate and installed in the Smithsonian's permanent collection in information technology.]
EDUCATION
B.A. Rutgers University, 1981 (Paul Robeson Scholar) M.A. Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, 1983 (with honors) Ph.D. Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, 1990
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Labor Economics - low wage work, caring labor, service sector work, wage inequality, social movement
Economic Geography - community economies, spatial inequality, spaces of consumption and retail labor
Political Economy - contested exchange, market failure, social construction of markets
Economic Thought and Methodology - heterodox economics, epistemology, participatory action research
Trabajo: Un enfoque desde la economía política (Spanish Edition) (Alianza Editorial, 2021). Work (Book Series: What is Political Economy?). (Cambridge, UK: Polity Books, 2019).
The Political Economy of Consumer Behavior: Contesting Consumption (London: Routledge, 2009; paperback edition 2011).
Articles in Refereed Journals
"The Return to Caring Skills: Gender, Class, and Occupational Wages in the U.S.," Feminist Economics 23, 4 (September 2017): 32-61.http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TqSxjjqpMzJkj4ks7Pky/full Cited in the 2022 Economic Report of the President
"Participatory Economic Research: Benefits and Challenges of Incorporating Participatory Research into Social Economics," Review of Social Economy 73, 3 (2015): 242-262.
"Introduction to the Special Section on the Political Economy of Food," Review of Radical Political Economics 40, 1 (Winter 2008): 5-7.
“Exploring New Directions in the Radical Political Economy of Consumption,” Review of Radical Political Economics 39, 2 (Spring 2007): 257-283.
“You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food Movement,” Review of Social Economy 62, 3 (September 2004): 307-321.
"Information Technology and Commercialization of Knowledge: Corporate Universities and Class Dynamics in an Era of Technological Restructuring," Journal of Economic Issues 35, 2 (June 2001): 299-305.
“Beyond the Fordist/Post-Fordist Dichotomy: Working Through The Second Industrial Divide,” Review of Social Economy 57, 2 (June 1999): 177-198.
“Modern and Postmodern Tensions in Adult Education Theory: A Reply to Jack Mezirow,” Adult Education Quarterly 48, 1 (Fall 1998):67-70.
"Alfred Schutz and the Economists: An Essay Suggesting the Relevance of Schutz's Phenomenological Sociology to Austrian, neo-Marxian and Institutionalist Economics." History of Political Economy 28, 2 (Summer 1996): 219-244.
"Power/Knowledge in Adult Education: Beyond Freire and Habermas." Adult Education Quarterly 46, 2 (Winter 1996): 82-97.
"Fordism at Ford: Spatial Decentralization and Labor Segmentation at the Ford Motor Company, 1920-1950." Economic Geography 71, 4 (October 1995): 383-401.
"Gendered Employment in the U.S. Auto Industry: A Case Study of the Ford Motor Co. Phoenix Plant, 1922-1940." Review of Radical Political Economics 27, 3 (September 1995): 39-48.
"Beyond Contested Exchange: The Importance of Consumption and Communication in Market Exchange." Review of Social Economy 53, 2 (Summer 1995): 215-241.
"On Categories and Configurations: Further Remarks on Rebuilding the American State," (with Ira Katznelson). A reply to Michael Brown, "State Capacity and Political Choice." Studies in American Political Development 9 (Spring 1995): 213-221.
"Objectivism, Relativism and the Importance of Rhetoric for Marxist Economics," (with William S. Milberg). Review of Radical Political Economics 26, 1 (1994): 85-109.
"Rebuilding the American State: Evidence From the 1940s," (with Ira Katznelson). Studies in American Political Development 5, 2 (Fall 1991): 301-339.
Published Articles Reprinted in Scholarly Collections
“You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food Movement,” published in Consuming Symbolic Goods: Identity and Commitment, Values and Economics, edited by Wilfred Dolfsma. (London: Routledge, 2007).
“Beyond the Fordist/Post-Fordist Dichotomy: Working Through The Second Industrial Divide,” published in The Fordism of Ford and Modern Management, edited by Huw Beynon and Theo Nichols. (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2006).
"Objectivism, Relativism and the Importance of Rhetoric for Marxist Economics," (with William S. Milberg), published in Recent Developments in Economic Methodology, edited by John B. Davis, (International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, series editor, Mark Blaug) (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2005).
"Fordism at Ford: Spatial Decentralization and Labor Segmentation at the Ford Motor Company, 1920-1950," published in Regulationist Perspectives on Fordism and Post-Fordism, edited by Bob Jessop, pp. 77-95. (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2001).
“Beyond the Wasteland: A Report from Detroit,” in Consequences of the Economic Downturn: Beyond the Usual Economics, edited by Martha Starr. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
“Fordism,” in Encyclopedia of Geography, edited by Barney Warf. (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishers, 2010).
"The Curious Popularity of the Toyota Prius," in The Futures of the Automobile, pp 199-212, edited by Gert Schmidt and Weert Canzler (Berlin: Sigma-Berlin, 2008).
“Ford Motor Company,” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by William A. Darity, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Philip Costanzo, Patrick L. Mason, Paula D. McClain, David Scott, Theresa Singleton, second edition (New York: Macmillan, 2007).
"Strategic Partnerships: Successfully Managing Collaborative Ventures in Adult Education," in Best Practices for Adult Learners in the Academy, pp. 35-47, edited by Lee Bash. (Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, 2005).
"Postwar Heterodox Economics: Radical Political Economy," The Blackwell Companion to the History of Economic Thought, pp. 479-490, edited by Warren J. Samuels, Jeff E. Biddle, and John Davis. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2003).
"A Primer in Political Economy," in Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism: Radical Perspectives on Economic Theory and Policy, pp. 13-20, edited by Ron Baiman, Heather Boushey, and Dawn Saunders. (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000).
"Tracing a Path to Henry Ford's Economic Policy: Was Ford a Fordist?" in The American Yearbook - 1997, pp. 190-203. (Moscow: Nauka Publishers, 1998).
"Can There Be Genre Difference in Economic Literature?" (co-authored with Suzanne Bergeron) in What Do Economists Know? New Economics of Knowledge, New Knowledge of Economics, pp. 139-152, edited by Robert F. Garnett. London: Routledge (1999).
Policy Reports
Low-Wage but not Low-Skilled: Occupational Skills and the $15 Hourly Wage. Center for Labor and Community Studies, University of Michigan-Dearborn, October 2016.
Book Reviews and Review Essays
Review of Organic Struggle: The Movement for Sustainable Agriculture in the United States by Brian Obach, Mobilization: An International Quarterly 22, 1 (March 2017): 121-122.
Review of The Routes Not Taken: A Trip through New York City's Unbuilt Subway System by J.B. Raskin, Urban History 43, 2 (May 2016): 354-356.
“Power, Race, Mobility, and Immobility in Detroit,” review of Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide by Joe T. Darden and Richard W. Thomas, Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies 4, 2 (Summer 2014): 152-153.
Review of Working in the Shadows by Gabriel Thompson, Review of Radical Political Economics 44, 1 (March 2012): 110-111.
Review of Cars and Culture: The Life Story of a Technology by Rudi Volti, Journal of Transport History 28, 1 (March 2007): 146-148.
Review of Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford’s Village Industries, by Howard Segal, Technology & Culture 47.4 (2006) 855-857.
"The History and Practice of Feminist Economics: A Review Essay," Review of Radical Political Economics 32, 2 (2000): 331-339.
Review of Making Sense of a Changing Economy: Technology, Markets and Morals by Edward J. Nell, Review of Social Economy 55, 3 (Fall 1997): 381-385.
Review of Money and the Modern Mind: Georg Simmel's Philosophy of Money by Gianfranco Poggi, History of Economic Ideas 3, no. 3 (1995).
Museum Exhibits
“Motor City Voices: Race, Labor and De-industrialization,” October 11 – November 9, 2007, Alfred Berkowitz Gallery, University of Michigan-Dearborn. April 25 – September 1, 2008, Ford Rouge Factory Tour, The Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan September 9 – December 1, 2008, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan..
Motor City Voices: Race, Labor and De-industrialization, Museum Exhibit Guide (2007).
SELECTED SCHOLARLY AWARDS AND RESEARCH GRANTS
Recipient of the 2013 Ludwig Mai award for exceptional service to the Association for Social Economics.
2012 Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute Integrated Assessment Program grant for research in support of the HOPE Village Initiative Project, “Mapping Community Economies and Building Capabilities in HOPE Village.”
2011 Economic and Community Development Research Initiative Grant, Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy and the Office of the Vice-President for Research, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, for project entitled “Skills and Wages in Detroit’s Low-Wage Occupations: Re-Framing Economic Development Policy.”
Recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Research Award from the UM-Dearborn Women’s and Gender Studies Program in recognition of “Economic Knowledge and Consumer Behavior: Home Economics and Feminist Analysis,” Chapter 3, The Political Economy of Consumer Behavior: Contesting Consumption (London: Routledge, 2009).
2007 Faculty Research Support Grant, Michigan-Dearborn, Office of Sponsored Research for support of research and writing of a manuscript on the political economy of consumer behavior.
2007 Grant from the Michigan Humanities Council for “Motor City Voices: Race, Labor and De-industrialization” oral history collection and museum exhibition.
2005 Research Assistant Grant, University of Michigan-Dearborn Office of Sponsored Research, for project entitled "Creative Class/Working Class: Exploring the History of the Future of Manufacturing."
2001 Summer Research Grant, University of Michigan-Dearborn Office of Sponsored Research, for a research project entitled "Gender and the Construction of Economic Knowledge: Toward a New Political Economy of Consumption."
1997-98 Fellowship in the History of Home Economics/Nutrition, Cornell University. “Home Economics and Homo Economicus: The Creation and Diffusion of Diverse Sources of Economic Knowledge in the 20th Century.”
1995 recipient of the Helen Potter Award in recognition of the best article published in the Review of Social Economy.
1993 University of Michigan Rackham Faculty Research Grant in support of research on Fordist and post-Fordist production technology and labor relations.
COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH COLLABORATION
“Documenting Wage Theft Among Contingent Workers in Detroit,” research project undertaken in collaboration with the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice and the Interfaith Worker Justice Center (2011-12).
Research provided to the Michigan Restaurant Industry Coalition and the Restaurant Opportunities Center in support of Behind the Kitchen Door: Inequality and Opportunity in Metro Detroit’s Growing Restaurant Industry (2010).
Scientific and Professional Societies Memberships American Society of Hispanic Economists Association for Social Economics Community Economies Research Network [CERN] Diversity Scholars Network, National Center for Institutional Diversity International Association for Feminist Economics Union for Radical Political Economics