Spatialities of class formation: Urban sprawl and union density in U.S. metropolitan areas

Abstract

This article analyzes links between urban sprawl and labor union membership across 194 U.S. metro areas. It finds significant correlations between union density and sprawl, especially in right-to-work states, and especially for public sector workers. It substantiates arguments that smart growth policies, in addition to being beneficial for the sustainability, health, well-being, and opportunity of urban communities, can bring about an urban-spatial pattern of higher density and mixed use that is advantageous for union organizing. Greater union engagement in smart growth and climate justice coalitions in struggles over land use, infrastructure, and urban form, it argues, is thus important not only to directly further goals of social justice and sustainability, but for its potential value in strategies to revitalize the U.S. labor movement. Reviewing labor studies literature on urban spatiality and working class formation, the paper underlines the importance of the “integrative turn” toward comparative and systematic analysis in labor geography.