Doctoral Dissertation Research: Geographic Dimensions of Local Policy Change Across Different Urban Settings

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This doctoral dissertation research project will investigate the factors that influence the geographic spread of campaigns for an increased minimum wage across the U.S. The doctoral student will examine the spatial strategies employed by labor organizations, the variation of these strategies across locations, and the generalized patterns of movement of minimum wage increases as they proliferate throughout the country. Although focused on the topic of minimum-wage increases, the project will provide new insights and information regarding a broader range of topics by examining the importance of networks, policy context, and the material and discursive power of institutions for the spatial-temporal mobility of policies. The project will yield new theoretical insights about the strategies of labor organizations as well as an empirical investigation into the practical mechanisms that enable and constrain policy mobility, thereby benefitting both scholars and policy practitioners. 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.This project will focus three core questions: (1) How do policy initiatives to increase the minimum wage spread spatially? (2) What are the spatial strategies employed by labor unions and other labor organizations as they design and implement campaigns to promote increased minimum wage? (3) How do these campaigns and the wage-related policies vary by location? The doctoral student will perform a comparative case study of three campaigns for an increase in the minimum-wage rate in the cities of Seattle, Washington; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Charlotte, North Carolina. She will employ participant observation and qualitative interviews to gather relevant data, and she will analyze these data using a grounded theory approach to identify the mechanisms through which policy translation occurs and to trace the spread of recent minimum wage increase efforts throughout the nation.