Transforming the Occupational Landscape: Capital Mobility, Regional Economic Development, and Apprenticeship Programs

"In the second half of the twentieth century, the occupational landscape of the United States transformed many times over. This panel examines three such shifts: the acceleration of capital mobility and the role of “site selection” consulting firms in expediting it; the rise of tribal enterprises and their role in facilitating regional economic development and job creation; and the debate over automation and the civil rights struggle for apprenticeship training that it provoked. By placing these topics in conversation with one another, this panel asks participants to consider the relationship between the composition and distribution of capital, on the one hand, and the jobs available to workers, on the other. Who had access to secure and remunerative employment, and on what terms? How did these structures and policies within a new economy develop and which historical actors played crucial roles in creating them?”