New Orleans: Post-Disaster Dual Dualism in Labor Markets and Development

Pages175-202
Date29 October 2012
Published date29 October 2012
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2012)0000017012
AuthorAaron Schneider
NEW ORLEANS: POST-DISASTER
DUAL DUALISM IN LABOR
MARKETS AND DEVELOPMENT
Aaron Schneider
ABSTRACT
Purpose This chapter explores the nature of dualism as it operates in
post-Katrina New Orleans. In particular, the chapter suggests that the
combination of the push toward a tourism and services dependent
economy and the failure to regulate labor markets has created an espe-
cially detrimental situation for both workers and the long-term develop-
ment of the city.
Design/methodology To explore dualism in sectors and employment,
this chapter applies survey methods to three areas of the New Orleans
economy: food service, construction, and manufacturing. Survey meth-
ods vary slightly across sectors, due to the ease or difficulty of applying
random sampling methods in each context. The surveys were applied
anonymously by trained interviewers, and additional information from
qualitative interviews and focus groups was also included.
Findings Without regulation of labor markets and efforts to sustain
and expand sectors characterized by decent livelihoods, New Orleans
working conditions and development will continue to decline.
Disasters, Hazards and Law
Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume 17, 175202
Copyright r2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1521-6136/doi:10.1108/S1521-6136(2012)0000017012
175
Originality/value This chapter offers an original application of
theories of dualism in development and labor markets. In development,
dualism refers to sectoral division between high-value, cosmopolitan
activities and low-productivity sectors, with few prospects for growth or
employment. In labor markets, dualism characterizes the distinction
between well-remunerated jobs with opportunities for decent livelihoods
and other jobs that are precarious and vulnerable. The chapter also pro-
vides results from original surveys, interviews, and focus groups.
INTRODUCTION
Hurricane Katrina consolidated patterns of dualism that affected the city
in labor markets and development. Dualism describes sectoral patterns of
development, in which certain sectors are linked to high-value, cosmopoli-
tan activities while others are separated from the advanced economy, left
behind, and have limited prospects for growth. Dualism also describes the
operation of labor markets, in which some jobs are well remunerated and
offer decent opportunities for growth and livelihoods, while other jobs are
precarious, vulnerable, and offer limited prospects, and the two labor mar-
kets are highly impermeable. The post-disaster context did not create dual
dualism in development and labor markets, but it reshaped it, freeing the
city of the legal protections and social actors that might have blocked such
an arrangement.
This chapter explores the nature of dual dualism by exploring informa-
tion taken from surveys in three sectors of the New Orleans economy: food
service, construction, and manufacturing. In the first two, patterns of seg-
mentation in the labor market are clearly evident, with a few good jobs
that offer decent wages and conditions and a large number of bad jobs
with limited prospects for a decent livelihood. Individuals are allocated to
good and bad jobs on the basis of ascriptive characteristics such as race,
gender, and immigration status, without regard to qualities such as experi-
ence or skill that might indicate different levels of productivity. This makes
it virtually impossible to move from secondary sector into primary sector
work. By way of contrast, the manufacturing sector has higher rates of
unionization and greater government regulation, and ascriptive character-
istics do not appear to be an obstacle to advancement. There is a single
market for shipbuilding labor, promotion and income are based on experi-
ence and skill, and workers are provided the decent livelihoods that enable
them to make a contribution to their communities.
176 AARON SCHNEIDER

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