About Marc Doussard
Biography
Marc Doussard is Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Development. He focuses on equitable economic development at the level of communities, cities, and regions. Professor Doussard’s research examines the economic value of social practices, policy development, and emergent issues typically considered to lie outside economic development. His early work demonstrated the value to places and communities of improving pay, working conditions, and job security for low-wage workers. He has since explored the economic development value of marijuana legalization, the maker movement, community organizing, municipal public policy, and investments in local manufacturing capacity.
Professor Doussard holds a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, but his real education came at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has been active in economic development as a scholar, program staffer, public intellectual, and organizer since the 1990s.
Education
- PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2008
- MUPP, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2002
- BA, Columbia College, 1997
Research and publications
Ongoing and upcoming research
Justice at Work: Movements for Social and Economic Equality in U.S. Cities
This book-in-progress explores the recent wave of $15 minimum wage laws and related policies designed to mitigate growing economic inequality. Justice at Work draws on interviews and fieldwork from more than a half-dozen cities to make sense of the policy and activism networks that circulate economic reforms among U.S. cities and state houses.
Alternative Policy Mobilities: Transnational Exchange and the Circulation of Economic Alternatives
How do citizens and social movements develop alternatives to economic models and policies that expand inequality? This project examines the circulation of experimental ideas about labor markets and economic development among internationally networked policymakers, researchers and activists. Starting with field research in France, Germany and England, the project will map the networks that develop, exchange and test experimental policies and programs, as well as evaluate the role of those networks in shaping legal change and political movements.
Selected publications
Books
Degraded Work: The Struggle at the Bottom of the Labor Market (Minnesota, 2013: Winner of the Davidoff Book Award)
Articles
Doussard, Marc and Brad Fulton. 2020. “Organizing Together: Benefits and Drawbacks of Community-Labor Coalitions for Community Organizations.” Social Service Review 94 (1): 1-39.
Doussard, Marc. 2019. "The Other Green Jobs: Legal Marijuana and the Promise of Consumption-Driven Economic Development.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 39 (1): 79-92.
Clark, Jennifer and Marc Doussard. 2019. “Devolution, Disinvestment and Uneven Development: U.S. Industrial Policy and the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 12 (2): 251-270.
Eisenburger, Max, Marc Doussard, Laura Wolf-Powers, Greg Schrock and Stephen Marotta. 2019. “Industrial Inheritances: Makers, Relatedness and Materiality in Chicago and New York.” Regional Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2019.1588460.
Teaching and advising
Classes taught
- UP 330: The Modern American City
- UP 505: Urban and Regional Analysis
- UP 545: Economic Development Policy and Practice
- UP 589: Research Design and Methods
- UP 594-MD: Policy Mobilities
Students advised
PhD:
- Max Eisenburger (ABD)
- Steve Sherman (PhD 2019)
- Ozge Yenigun (ABD)
Master of Urban Planning:
- Chris Ackerman-Avila
- Anna An
- Nick Bartholomew
- Ashma Basnyat
- Carol Brobeck
- Alejandro Campos
- Kelly Chen
- Adrienne Cooke
- Marcus da Costa
- Brianna Gipson
- Ming Hang
- Cristen Hardin
- Taryn Harm
- Scott Humphrey
- John Kwon
- Tejashree Kulkarni
- Jacob Malmsten
- Mitchelle Margolis
- David Mischiu
- Joe Monahan
- Shriya Rangarajan
- Swati Rastogi
- Claudlène Saint Vil
- Angela Urban
- Brian Waters
- Chieh Yang
- Alli Young
- Yuan Zhang
- Lyn Zhong