Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Urban Geography of Green Jobs

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This doctoral dissertation research improvement project is about how urban job training prepares workers for clean energy employment in cities. This research investigates the career pathways of workers as the energy sector transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energies. It analyzes contemporary job training programs together with historical processes that limit access to jobs in the energy sector. The benefits of this research will determine how economic development and employment opportunities emerging from public and utility investment can best support under-served communities. The research results will be disseminated through academic publications, conferences, white papers and policy reports developed in conjunction with local grassroots stakeholders and through national environmental and labor organizations. As a doctoral dissertation project this project advances the career of a junior scientist.The doctoral student will investigate how the history of the civil rights movement shapes emergent energy and labor politics in the formation of green jobs policy in U.S. cities. This research asks, how can green jobs policies leverage public infrastructure programs to create training opportunities that identify barriers to advancement in employment? This project draws on political ecology and environmental justice to identify how job readiness programs fail to consider everyday life situations that make it difficult for workers to maintain a job. Questions of everyday experiences of worker recruitment, training, and placement into jobs contribute to understanding employment dynamics in the process of energy transition. The research question will be answered through archival research and policy analysis to follow green jobs programs through state agencies and advocacy organizations, via interviews with key environmental and labor organizations, and from participant observation to examine equity objectives.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.