Abstract
Persistent precarity is a fundamental, yet usually hidden and often overlooked condition of urbanism, particularly for those who represent the human labor that produces and reproduces the capitalist city. The question, then, is how do those who represent this under-represented human labor, unions, engage with and influence the underlying power structure that actually shapes the city? Labor unions simultaneously shape and are shaped by the spatial political economy of the contemporary city. This article examines this phenomenon through analysis of an illuminating case study, the powerful Culinary Union in Las Vegas. Drawing from different primary and secondary sources, this article offers several valuable insights: organized labor is significant in the spatial production of the city, urban precarity can be mitigated by advocating for the public realm, and asserting agency in the power dynamics of the city can be an effective way of influencing its urbanism.
Highlights
Who designs cities? For example, who designs a city such as Las Vegas? Rather, who produces Las Vegas in substantial and significant ways? Urban designers? City planners?Policy makers? Private developers? And how is the city produced and reproduced spatially? One dominant historical narrative of urbanism places often-iconic individuals, such as heroic architects (e.g., Le Corbusier), landscape architects (e.g., Frederick LawOlmstead), urban designers (e.g., Andres Duany), and city planners (e.g., Daniel Burnham) at the center as primary actors
Examining the spatial political economy of a city enables us to better understand how cities are designed, by whom and for whose benefit e.g., [2], and to gain insight into the fact that designing a city implies heavily influencing its urbanism in terms of ongoing and multifaceted processes through practices that intervene in its larger power structures and dynamics, rather than narrowly focusing on it as a finished product through conventions such as master plans, design guidelines, planning regulations, and three-dimensional projects
There has been excellent research conducted by Flyvbjerg e.g., [6] and others challenging conventional views and outdated constraints of utilizing case studies as a basis for a more general understanding of phenomena, such as crafting alternative narratives regarding the spatial production of cities
Summary
Who designs cities? For example, who designs a city such as Las Vegas? Rather, who produces Las Vegas in substantial and significant ways? Urban designers? City planners?. Examining the spatial political economy of a city enables us to better understand how cities are designed, by whom and for whose benefit e.g., [2], and to gain insight into the fact that designing a city implies heavily influencing its urbanism in terms of ongoing and multifaceted processes through practices that intervene in its larger power structures and dynamics, rather than narrowly focusing on it as a finished product through conventions such as master plans, design guidelines, planning regulations, and three-dimensional projects (even though those do matter in such processes) It is through this lens that we can see that traditional institutions and practices such as planning agencies, city councils, private developers and individual urbanists are unable to mitigate the vital problem of urban precarity, and perpetuate it through their private profit-driven practices either explicitly or implicitly in cities such as Las Vegas. The article concludes with insights and implications for urban practice
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