Colloquium

 

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
4:00 pm
UCLA Faculty Center, Sierra Room

 

Changing Work in Media Industries: A Harbinger for Broader Changes in Work?

Presented by Susan Christopherson, Cornell University

 

Professor Christopherson's recent work relates to the continuing influence of large distribution firms on work and the allocation of risk in the film and television industries. The below paper specifically looks at how production trends, influenced by conglomerate domination of production and distribution, are affecting the media workforce. In particular, Professor Christopherson looks at three tendencies. The first is a widening split between core workers and peripheral workers employed in industry projects. The second is a change in professional and craft identities as a result of technological specialization by freelancers and the loss of union control over production projects, especially at the low end of the budget spectrum. Finally, there is the persistence of "hard-wired" social and economic networks to reduce worker and employer risk. These networks foster and reinforce labor segmentation among women and men, and among ethnic groups, restricting access to job opportunities and careers.

 

About the Speaker

Susan Christopherson is J. Thomas Clark Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. She is an economic geographer (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley) whose research and teaching focus on 1) economic development, 2) urban labor markets, and 3) location patterns in service industries, particularly the media industries. Her research includes both international and U.S.-policy-oriented projects. Her international research includes studies in Canada, Mexico, China, Germany, and Jordan as well as multi-country studies.

In the past three years she has completed studies on 1) advanced manufacturing in New York’s Southern Tier, 2) the photonics industry in Rochester, 3) the role of universities and colleges in revitalizing the upstate New York economy, and 4) production trends affecting media industries in New York City. Her book, Re-making Regional Economies: Labor, Power and Firm Strategies in the Knowledge Economy (Routledge 2007) focuses on barriers to regional economic development in the U.S. economy. She has also written numerous articles for academic journals on subjects ranging from labor standards to the competition between U.S. and Canadian regions for film and television production.

Her work in the field of economic development has concentrated primarily on strategies for revitalizing the economy of upstate New York.

 

This event is co-sponsored with the Department of Urban Planning