ASRC 4001 - Inequality, Environment and Post-Industrialism

(SBA-AS, SCD-AS, SSC-AS) (CU-SBY)

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

J. Ezell.

Since the 1970s, cities and hinterlands across America have undergone vast and steep levels of deindustrialization, this brewing from the joint impacts of globalization and deregulation as well as the rise of automation. Impacts from these steady patterns has been felt especially hard in Black and lower-income communities, where community disinvestment, crime and environmental degradation, acting as virtual “after shocks,” has often followed the exit of prominent industries, particularly those in the automobile and broader manufacturing sectors. Focusing on the (formerly) industrial Midwest and parts of the southeastern U.S., students will learn about and interrogate the various organizational, social and situational factors contributing to this dramatic generational shift in our economic landscape and labor markets and the resultant impacts on equity and environmental sustainability in middle America.