Culture in the labor market: segmentation theory and perspectives of place

Abstract

Labor market segmentation theory explains the economic marginalization of racial minorities, the working class and women. Economic geographers have contributed a perspective of spatial entrapment and spatially contingent job markets. In this article I emphasize supply-side processes and the role of these processes in labor market segmentation theory. In particular I focus on issues of cultural experience of place and cultural representation of place. I develop this argument by integrating two bodies of literature: (1) segmentation theory, in which the role of experience and representation of place remains undertheorized; and (2) cultural geography, in which such a conceptualization of place exists. The article follows a contemporary trend in human geography that links cultural with economic processes.