Department of Geography Coffee Hour
“Manufacturing Decline: How Racism and the Conservative Movement Crush the American Rust Belt.”
Speaker: Jason Hackworth, professor of geography and planning, University of Toronto
- Lecture begin at 4PM at in the John J. Cahir Auditorium, 112 Walker Building
- Join by zoom: https://psu.zoom.us/j/904694608
Despite the considerable overlap between the presence of non-white people and generalized population (and capital) flight in a variety of national contexts, the urban decline literature almost entirely ignores race and racism as active causes of urban shrinkage. Most literature focuses on conventional economic explanations (e.g. levels of deindustrialization), and solutions (e.g. reinvention of the economy around a creative class paradigm). This presentation, which is based on material from the book Manufacturing Decline: How Racism and the Conservative Movement Crush the American Rust Belt (2019, Columbia University Press), explores the role of racism as an active cause of urban decline. More than simply being the cause of economic distress, declining cities and their often non-white citizens are actively constructed as virtual bêtes noires to advance conservative political interventions.
Coffee Hour is a weekly lecture hosted by the Department of Geography celebrating interdisciplinary scholarship and collegiality. Topics range from innovations in GIScience, to food security, to land use and justice issues, among others. All members of the Geography, Penn State, and Centre County community are invited to attend. Talks are recorded and shared here: Coffee Hour Mediasite Channel.