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

这个博士论文研究项目将调查影响美国最低工资提高运动的地理分布的因素。博士生将研究劳工组织采用的空间策略，这些策略在不同地点的变化，以及最低工资增长在全国扩散时的总体运动模式。尽管该项目关注的是最低工资增长这一主题，但该项目将通过研究网络、政策背景以及机构对政策时空流动性的物质和话语力量的重要性，为更广泛的主题提供新的见解和信息。该项目将对劳工组织的策略产生新的理论见解，并对促进和限制政策流动性的实际机制进行实证调查，从而使学者和政策实践者都受益。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。本项目将聚焦三个核心问题：(1)提高最低工资的政策举措如何在空间上扩散？(2)工会和其他劳工组织在设计和实施提高最低工资的运动时采用了哪些空间策略？(3)这些活动和与工资相关的政策在不同地区有何不同？该博士生将对西雅图、华盛顿等城市的三场提高最低工资率的运动进行比较案例研究；密尔沃基,威斯康星州;以及北卡罗来纳州的夏洛特。她将采用参与者观察和定性访谈来收集相关数据，并将使用扎根的理论方法来分析这些数据，以确定政策翻译发生的机制，并追踪最近最低工资增长在全国范围内的传播。

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.