Bruce Pietrykowski, Ph.D.
College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters
University of Michigan-Dearborn
Dearborn, MI 48128-1491

313-593-9970 (Faculty Office)                                                                                                                          
E-mail Address: bpie@umich.edu

CURRENT TEACHING AND ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS

Professor of Economics
Department of Social Sciences
University of Michigan-Dearborn

Director
Center for Labor and Community Studies
University of Michigan-Dearborn

Director
Urban and Regional Studies Program
University of Michigan-Dearborn

Research Scientist
Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE

2000-2007
Director
Center for the Study of Automotive Heritage
University of Michigan-Dearborn

1998-2001
Associate Dean
College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters
University of Michigan-Dearborn

1996-2001
Director
Distance Education Program for Working Adults
College of Arts, Sciences and Letters
University of Michigan-Dearborn

 

FIELDS OF RESEARCH SPECIALIZATION

Labor Economics; Economic Geography; Economic History; Political Economy; Industrial Organization
and Technological Change; Theories of Consumer Behavior; Economic Thought and Methodology  

TEACHING FIELDS

Macroeconomics; Labor Economics; Labor-Management Relations; Urban Economics;
Industrial Organization and Technological Change; Political Economy; Economic
Thought and Methodology; Statistics
 

EDUCATION

B.A.  Rutgers University, 1981 (Paul Robeson Scholar)
M.A.  Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, 1983 (with honors)
Ph.D. Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, 1990
 

DISSERTATION

"Wage and Productivity Patterns in U.S. Manufacturing Industries: An Analysis of
Employment Relations in Theories of Implicit Contracts, Efficiency Wages, and Labor
Market Segmentation" (Dissertation Supervisor: David M. Gordon)
 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Professor of Economics, Department of Social Sciences, University of
Michigan-Dearborn

Courses Taught:


RESEARCH

Books

The Political Economy of Consumer Behavior: Contesting Consumption (London: Routledge, 2011).

Articles in Refereed Journals

"Introduction to the Special Section on the Political Economy of Food," Review of Radical Political Economics 40, 1 (Winter 2008): 5-7.

“Exploring New Directions in the Radical Political Economy of Consumption,”
Review of Radical Political Economics Vol. 39, 2 (Spring 2007): 257-283.

“You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food Movement,” Review of Social Economy 62, 3 (September 2004): 307-321.

"Information Technology and Commercialization of Knowledge: Corporate Universities and Class Dynamics in an Era of Technological Restructuring," Journal of Economic Issues 35, 2 (June 2001): 299-305.

"The History and Practice of Feminist Economics: A Review Essay," Review of Radical Political Economics 32, 2 (2000): 331-339.

“Beyond the Fordist/Post-Fordist Dichotomy: Working Through The Second Industrial Divide,” Review of Social Economy 57, 2 (June 1999): 177-198.

“Modern and Postmodern Tensions in Adult Education Theory: A Reply to Jack Mezirow,” Adult Education Quarterly 48, 1 (Fall 1998): 67-70.

"Alfred Schutz and the Economists: An Essay Suggesting the Relevance of Schutz's Phenomenological Sociology to Austrian, neo-Marxian and Institutionalist Economics."  History of Political Economy 28, 2 (Summer 1996): 219-244.

"Power/Knowledge in Adult Education: Beyond Freire and Habermas."  Adult Education Quarterly 46, 2 (Winter 1996): 82-97.

"Fordism at Ford: Spatial Decentralization and Labor Segmentation at the Ford Motor Company, 1920-1950." Economic Geography 71, 4 (October 1995): 383-401.

"Gendered Employment in the U.S. Auto Industry: A Case Study of the Ford Motor Co. Phoenix Plant, 1922-1940." Review of Radical Political Economics 27, 3 (September 1995): 39-48.

"Beyond Contested Exchange: The Importance of Consumption and Communication in Market Exchange." Review of Social Economy 53, 2 (Summer 1995): 215-241.

"On Categories and Configurations: Further Remarks on Rebuilding the American State," (with Ira Katznelson).  A reply to Michael Brown, "State Capacity and Political Choice." Studies in American Political Development 9 (Spring 1995): 213-221.

"Consuming Culture: Postmodernism, Post-Fordism and Economics,"  Rethinking Marxism 7, 1 (Spring 1994): 62-80.

"Objectivism, Relativism and the Importance of Rhetoric for Marxist Economics," (with William S. Milberg). Review of Radical Political Economics 26, 1 (1994): 85-109.

"Rebuilding the American State: Evidence From the 1940s," (with Ira Katznelson).  Studies in American Political Development 5, 2 (Fall 1991): 301-339.

Published Articles Reprinted in Scholarly Collections

“You are what you Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food Movement,” in Consuming Symbolic Goods: Identity and Commitment, Values and Economics, edited by Wilfred Dolfsma.  (London: Routledge, 2007).

“Beyond the Fordist/Post-Fordist Dichotomy: Working Through The Second Industrial Divide,” in The Fordism of Ford and Modern Management, edited by Huw Beynon and Theo Nichols.  (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2006).

"Objectivism, Relativism and the Importance of Rhetoric for Marxist Economics," (with William S. Milberg), in Recent Developments in Economic Methodology, edited by John B. Davis, (International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, series editor, Mark Blaug) (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2005).

"Fordism at Ford: Spatial Decentralization and Labor Segmentation at the Ford Motor Company, 1920-1950," in Regulationist Perspectives on Fordism and Post-Fordism, edited by Bob Jessop, pp. 77-95.  (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2001).

Other Publications

"Beyond the Wasteland: A Report from Detroit" in Consequences of the Economic Decline: Beyond the Economics as Usual, edited by Martha Starr.  (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

“Fordism,” in Encyclopedia of Geography, edited by Barney Warf.  (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishers, 2010).

"The Curious Popularity of the Toyota Prius," in The Futures of the Automobile, pp. 199-212, eds. Gert Schmidt and Weert Canzler (Berlin: Sigma-Berlin, 2008).

“Ford Motor Company,” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, editors William A. Darity, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Philip Costanzo, Patrick L. Mason, Paula D. McClain, David Scott, Theresa Singleton, second edition (New York: Macmillan, 2007).

"Strategic Partnerships: Successfully Managing Collaborative Ventures in Adult Education," in Best Practices for Adult Learners in the Academy, pp. 35-47, edited by Lee Bash.  (Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, 2005).

"Postwar Heterodox Economics: Radical," The Blackwell Companion to the History of Economic Thought, edited by Warren J. Samuels, Jeff E. Biddle, and John Davis.  (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers (2003).

"A Primer in Political Economy" in Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism: Radical Perspectives on Economic Theory and Policy, pp. 13-20, edited by Ron Baiman, Heather Boushey, and Dawn Saunders.  (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000).

"Tracing a Path to Henry Ford's Economic Policy: Was Ford a Fordist?" in  The American Yearbook - 1997, pp. 190-203.  (Moscow: Nauka Publishers, 1998).

"Can There Be Genre Difference in Economic Literature?" (with Suzanne Bergeron) in What Do Economists Know?  New Economics of Knowledge, New Knowledge of Economics, pp. 139-152, edited by Robert F. Garnett.  (London: Routledge, 1999).

Book Reviews and Review Essays

Review of Working in the Shadows by Gabriel Thompson, Review of Radical Political Economics (forthcoming).

Review of Cars and Culture: The Life Story of a Technology by Rudi Volti, Journal of Transport History 28, 1 (March 2007): 146-148.

Review of Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford’s Village Industries by Howard Segal, book review, Technology & Culture 47, 4 (October 2006): 855-857.

Review of Producing Places by Ray Hudson, Review of Radical Political Economics 36, 4 (Summer 2004): 424-427.

Review of Making Sense of a Changing Economy: Technology, Markets and Morals by Edward J. Nell, Review of Social Economy 55, 3 (Fall 1997): 381-385.

Review of  Money and the Modern Mind: Georg Simmel's Philosophy of Money by Gianfranco Poggi, History of Economic Ideas 3, no. 3 (1995).

Work in Progress

“New Community Economies: Alternative Paths to Economic Sustainability" - a book-length manuscript exploring the rise and fall of manufacturing communities and opportunities for renewal and regeneration. 

"Fragile Fordism: Labor Relations, Community and Technology at Ford Motor,” a book-length manuscript detailing the economic and social history of mass production at Ford Motor.


Museum Exhibits

“Motor City Voices: Race, Labor and De-industrialization”:

October 11 – November 9, 2007, Alfred Berkowitz Gallery, University of Michigan-Dearborn.

April 25 – September 1, 2008, Ford Rouge Factory Tour, The Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.

September 9 – December 1, 2008, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan.

Motor City Voices: Race, Labor and De-industrialization, Museum Exhibit Guide (2007).

On-line exhibit, “Motor City Voices: Race, Labor and De-industrialization,”
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/motorcityvoices/home


SELECTED SCHOLARLY AWARDS AND RESEARCH GRANTS


2011 Faculty Research Grant, Office of the Vice-President for Research and the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy, for project titled "Skills and Wages in Detroit’s Low-Wage Occupations: Re-Framing Economic Development Policy."

2010 Outstanding Research Award from the UM-Dearborn Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

2007 Faculty Research Grant, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Office of Sponsored Research.

2001 Summer Research Grant,University of Michigan-Dearborn, Office of Sponsored Research for a research project entitled "Gender and the Construction of Economic Knowledge: Toward a New Political Economy of Consumption."

1997-98 Fellowship in the History of Home Economics/Nutrition, Cornell University.  “Home Economics and Homo Economicus: The Creation and Diffusion of Diverse Sources of Economic Knowledge in the 20th Century.”

1995 recipient of the Helen Potter Award in recognition of the best article published in the Review of Social Economy.

University of Michigan-Dearborn, Office of Sponsored Research, Research Assistance Award to assemble a Ford village industry data set.
Award Date: January 27, 1995

University of Michigan Rackham Faculty Research Grant awarded to study Fordist and post-Fordist production technology and labor relations.
Award date: May 1993 


COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH COLLABORATION

“Documenting Wage Theft Among Contingent Workers in Detroit,” research project undertaken in collaboration with the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice and the Interfaith Worker Justice Center (2011-12).

Peer-review of Engineering Society of Detroit symposium report, “Building a Consensus for Michigan’s Integrated Global Freight Hub,” March 9-10, 2011.  Research provided to the Michigan Restaurant Industry Coalition and the Restaurant Opportunities Center in support of Behind the Kitchen Door: Inequality and Opportunity in Metro Detroit’s Growing Restaurant Industry (2010).
 

RECENT CONFERENCE AND SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS

“Studying Labor and Re-Valuing Work: Low-Wage Work in Theory and Practice,” presented at the International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE) conference, University of Massachusetts, November 12, 2011.

“Plots of Resistance or Fields of Domination? Detroit’s Alternative Food Economies,” presented at the Regional Studies Association themed panels on ‘regional resilience’ held at the American Association of Geographers meeting, Seattle, Washington, April 14, 2011.

“Manufacturing Resilience: Toward a Comparative Analytical Framework,” presented at the Regional Studies Association themed panels on ‘regional resilience’ held at the American Association of Geographers meeting, Washington, D.C., April 15, 2010.

"Toyota’s Prius – Exploring User Culture and Technology" presented at the Changing Automobilism Conference held at Deutsches Haus, New York University April 5, 2007.

"Tourism at the Speed of Food: Fast Food, Slow Food and Culinary Tourism," presented at the Food and History Conference,
University of Central Lancashire, England, June 29, 2006.

"Accidental Tourism: Detroit’s People Mover and Industrial Ruins," presented at the 3rd International Conference on the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility, National Railway Museum, York, England, October 7, 2005.

"Technology and the Cultural Politics of Dearborn’s People Mover System," presented at the 2nd International Conference on the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility, University of Michigan-Dearborn, November 6, 2004.

"Imagined Communities of Heterodox and Orthodox Economics: Time to Redraw the Map," presented at the University of Manitoba, October 30, 2004.

"Contested Consumption: Radical and Feminist Re-Readings of Consumer Practices," presented at the ," American Economic Association/Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings, San Diego, CA, January 3, 2004.

"Contested Knowledge: Discourses of Science and Politics in Radical Political Economics," presented at the ," American Economic Association/Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings, San Diego, CA, January 4, 2004.

"Producing (Auto)Mobility:A Research Plan for Production and Technology in European Mobility History" (with Dr. Gijs Mom), presented at the 1st International Conference on the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, November 8, 2003.

“Uncovering the Gendered History of Household and Consumer Economics,” presented at the International Association for Feminist Economics Conference, Los Angeles, CA, July 15, 2002.

“Acknowledging Diversity: Gender, Home Economics and the Construction of Alternative Economic Knowledges,” presented at the Southwest Social Science Association Conference, New Orleans, March 29, 2002.

"Working and Shopping in the World of Ford: Gender and the Creation of Fordism," American Studies Association Conference, October 14, 2000, Detroit, Michigan.

"Home Economics and Homo Economicus: Gender, Disciplinary Boundaries and the Creation of Economic Knowledge," presented at the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center Colloquia Series, Cornell University, September 21, 1999.

"Teaching Urban Working-Class Culture in a Distance Learning World" (with Jacqueline Lawson, Ph.D.), The University and the City: Urban Education and the Liberal Arts conference, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, March 5, 1999.

"Wages, Gender and Labor Skills from a Postmodern Economic Perspective," American Economic Association/Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings, New York City, January 4, 1999.

"Postmodernizing Schutz: Phenomenology and Postmodern Economics," American Economic Association/Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings, New York City, January 4, 1999.

“Working, Shopping and Homemaking: Engendering Discourse About Gender in Economics,” American Economic Association/Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings, Chicago, January 4, 1998.

“Deconstructing Ford: Re-Examining the Organizational Logic of Mass Production,” seminar presentation at the University of Denver, January 31, 1997.

"Gender, Segmentation and Supervisory Labor: Lessons from Mass Production at Ford Motor," American Economic Association/Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings, New Orleans, January 6, 1997.

"Production, Gender and Consumer Behavior: Exploring the Intersections of Fordism, Feminism and Postmodern Marxism," American Economic Association/Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings, San Francisco, January 6, 1996.

"Producing Consumers: Gender, Labor and Community at Ford Motor Company's Phoenix Plant, 1922-1940," Seventeenth Annual North American Labor History Conference, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, October 19, 1995.

"Gender and Fordism at Work: A Case Study of Ford's Phoenix, Michigan Plant, 1922-1940," UM-Ann Arbor, Department of Economics, Political Economy Seminar, March 17, 1995.

"Gendered Employment in the U.S. Auto Industry,"  Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings, Washington, D.C., January 8, 1995.
 

MEMBERSHIP AND SERVICE IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Editor Board Member, Review of Social Economy

Editorial Board Member, Review of Radical Political Economics

Editorial Board Member, Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies

Editorial Board Member, Journal of Transport History

Association for Social Economics,  Midwest Regional Director

Detroit Association for Business Economics

Union for Radical Political Economics

Regional Studies Association