Mapping labour movements in the Big Apple

Labour Studies students enrolled in the department's first-ever field course recently travelled to New York City to learn how workers' movements shaped and were shaped by the city's politics, culture and the economy.

The course, "Working-Class New York: Life and Labour," included a one-week field trip to New York City, during which students explored sites across the five boroughs.

"Walking the city, students are interacting with physical space and places that reflect dynamics of power, class and inequality, and also of workers' collective action and resistance," says Chair and Associate Professor Simon Black.

Part of the experience, according to Black, is observing how "working-class movements have shaped the built form of New York" and then considering how this impact applies to urban space more generally.

"The city's large stock of public housing, its union-sponsored co-operatives, union halls, worker centres, murals and monuments dedicated to workers and their struggles, public hospitals, the university system and cheap and easy-to-use mass transit all set New York City apart from much of the United States," says Black. "These institutions and sites are a legacy of working peoples' struggles for a more livable city, a kind of local social democracy, and reflect the power of the organized working class in New York but are not the kind of thing the average tourist would pay attention to."

In addition to visiting key sites, such as the African Burial Ground National Monument, the Tenement Museum, the Triangle Factory Fire Memorial and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance headquarters, students worked on an assignment to map the labour movement of a given period using ArcGIS Story Maps.

Students are also collaborating on an Instagram feed, @WorkingClassNewYork, posting photos and field notes to share their findings more broadly.

Fourth-year Labour Studies major Nathan Brigham was among the 20 students who participated. He says that being in the field gave him perspective on the lives of workers and on the relationship between physical and social realities.

"The actions of those who came before us have influenced and shaped our environments, and if you take a closer look, the layers of history start to reveal themselves within those spaces," says Brigham.

Asma Afrooz, also a fourth-year Labour Studies major, says that as a student whose family came to Canada as refugees fleeing the war in Afghanistan, the course resonated on more than one level.

"Students like me have little opportunity to be in spaces where our experiences of government housing and racialized poverty are heard, but during this trip, my observations and experiences translated to educational material," she says.

The field course is one of two this summer supported by the Faculty of Social Sciences Dean's Strategic Initiatives Fund - the other, a Geography field course to London, England, took place earlier in July.

"Field courses offer students unique opportunities to fully immerse themselves in an educational experience," says Dean Ingrid Makus. "It's gratifying to hear from students about their learning and growth from these intensive courses and to ensure that these experiences are available to as many students as possible."

Black says that the course is part of the Department of Labour Studies' ongoing efforts to expand learning opportunities and commit to internationalization. And this trip was particularly special for him, as he completed his doctoral research, later published in his book Social Reproduction and the City, in New York City.

"I've always been fascinated by the city and particularly its labour history," says Black. "It was great to share this knowledge with students and encourage them to look at the city beyond its major tourists destinations."

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