Current research

I am at work on two book projects that consider the relationship of urban space and global capital, state and society, and built and natural environments from 1900 to the present.

The first is a monograph provisionally titled The Production of Innovation that explores the century-long transition of the United States from an industrial to postindustrial economy and the profound political, social, and geographic consequences of this transition. I consider the redefinition of work, workers, production, and productive spaces over the course of the twentieth century, showing the deep roots of the "new" economy and the role of the American state in defining how it grew, where it located, and who participated in it. Articles derived from this project are forthcoming in Social Science History, The Journal of Technology Transfer, and others.

The second project, a collaboration with Karen C. Seto titled Landscapes of Wealth, brings a transnational and interdisciplinary perspective to these questions. The explosive growth of China and India in recent decades has been chiefly an urban story, and the appearance of suburban subdivisions on the outskirts of these new megacities has been much discussed, but little understood and rarely historicized. This study blends historical research and analysis of the dynamics of land-use change to show how and why the North American suburb has gone global and the environmental consequences of this exportation of suburban built environments. Some of the maps and visualizations from our project can be found here.