Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes
Pathways out of Poverty through Green Collar Jobs: The Role of Scholarship in Improving Quality of Life for Urban Residents

Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes is Professor of Urban Studies at San Francisco State University. Her teaching, research and community activism focus on improving quality of life for people living and working in cities. Her landmark study, Green Collar Jobs: An Analysis of the Capacity of Green Business to Provide High Quality Jobs for Men and Women with Barriers to Employment, is considered the definitive work on the subject, and has been used as a model for various programs. In addition to her work in the United States, she has conducted research and guest lectured in Havana, Cuba, Curitiba, Brazil, and Rajasthan, India. Pinderhughes is president of the Board of Directors of the Ecology Center, which runs the city of Berkeley’s recycling and farmers market programs, and Rising Sun Energy Services, operators of programs to reduce residential energy and water consumption in the Bay Area. She serves on the Board of Directors of Clean City, a non-profit organization focused on cleaning, greening and beautifying the city of San Francisco while providing job training and placement services for people with barriers to employment.

Presentation Preview

Poverty and unemployment are significant problems in the United States and there is an urgent need for stable living wage jobs for low income adults, particularly those with barriers to employment such as not having a high school or GED degree, limited labor market skills, being incarcerated, and/or being out of the labor market for a long period of time. Pinderhughes’ work on green collar jobs, which she defines as “manual labor jobs in firms or other enterprises whose products and services directly improve environmental quality,” has shown that green collar jobs represent an important category of work force opportunities for adults with barriers to employment because they are high quality jobs with low barriers to entry, in sectors poised for dramatic growth. Pinderhughes’ presentation will focus on two aspects of this work: 1) pathways out of poverty through green collar jobs, 2) how scholars can be involved in social change and directly contribute to improving quality of life for urban residents.

Discussion Questions

• Can green collar jobs function as pathways out of poverty and, if so, how and under what conditions?
• Can green collar jobs function as the centerpiece for a new urban agenda and, if so, how?
• Is the green economy here to stay or is it simply a sexy, trendy response to current changes in consumer spending and private investment?
• Why is it important to link efforts to improve urban environmental quality to opportunities to address social inequalities?
• How can scholars be involved in social change and directly contribute to improving quality of life or urban residents and what structures best facilitate their doing so?
• How can the work you are currently engaged in function to bring positive change and what does “positive change” mean to you?

Recommended Advance Reading

• Apollo Alliance. Green Collar Jobs in America’s Cities. 2008.
• Pinderhughes, Raquel. Alternative Urban Futures: Planning for Sustainable Development in Cities throughout the World. 2004.
• Pinderhuges, Raquel. Green Collar Jobs: An Analysis of the Capacity of Green Businesses to Provide High Quality Jobs for Men and Women with Barriers to Employment. 2008.