Nik Theodore is Director of the Center for Urban Economic Development and an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy. Prior to joining UIC, he was a 1997-98 Atlantic Fellow in Public Policy based at Manchester University (UK) and researcher in the Chicago Urban League’s Research & Planning Department (1988-97).

Nik’s research agenda is focused on problems of socioeconomic inequality arising from the restructuring of urban economies. Grounded in community development practice, his research seeks to combine primary data collection and analysis, policy assessment and evaluation, and theory-building to illuminate the complex (and often contradictory) processes that give rise to economic hardship in urban communities.

His recent research projects include studies of: conditions in low-wage labor markets; community-based responses to violations of basic labor standards; the informal economy; and global social policy.

Phone: (312) 996-8378
Email: theodore@uic.edu

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RECENT PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE:

N. Theodore and J. Peck (2012) “Framing Neoliberal Urbanism: Translating ‘Common Sense’ Urban Policy across the OECD Zone,” European Urban and Regional Studies, forthcoming.

J. Peck and N. Theodore (2012) “Follow the Policy,” Environment and Planning A, forthcoming.

N. Brenner, N. Theodore and J. Peck (2012) “Towards Deep Neoliberalization?” in J. Künkel and M. Mayer, eds., Neoliberal Urbanism and its Contestations – Crossing Theoretical Boundaries. London: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming.

N. Theodore (2011) “Policing Borders: Unauthorized Immigration and the Pernicious Politics of Attrition,” Social Justice, 38(1/2): forthcoming.

N. Brenner, J. Peck and N. Theodore (2011) Afterlives of Neoliberalism. London: Bedford Press/ Architectural Association, forthcoming.

N. Brenner, J. Peck and N. Theodore (2011) “¿Y después de la neoliberalización? Estrategias metodológicas para la investigación de las transformaciones regulatorias contemporáneas,” URBAN NS01: 21-40.

N. Theodore, J. Peck, and N. Brenner (2011) “Neoliberal Urbanism: Cities and the Rule of Markets,” in G. Bridge and S. Watson, eds., A New Companion to the City, 15-25. London: Blackwell.

N. Brenner, J. Peck, and N. Theodore (2010) “After Neoliberalization?” Globalizations 7(3): 327-345.

J. Peck and N. Theodore (2010) “Recombinant Workfare, Across the Americas: Transnationalizing ‘Fast’ Social Policy,” Geoforum 41(2): 195-208.

J. Peck and N. Theodore (2010) “Mobilizing Policy: Models, Methods and Mutations,” Geoforum 41(2): 169-174.

N. Brenner, J. Peck, and N. Theodore (2010) “Variegated Neoliberalization: Geographies, Modalities, Pathways,” Global Networks 10(2): 1-41.

N. Theodore (2010) “Urban Underclass: The Wayward Travels of a Chaotic Concept,” Urban Geography 31(2): 169-174.

J. Peck and N. Theodore (2010) “Labor Markets from the Bottom Up” in S. McGrath-Champ, A. Herod, and A. Rainie, eds., Handbook of Employment and Society: Working Space, 87-105. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

E. Meléndez, N. Theodore, and A. Valenzuela (2010) “Day Laborers in New York’s Informal Economy,” in E. Marcelli, C. Williams, and P. Joussart-Marcelli, eds., The Informal Economy in the Developed World, 133-150. London: Routledge.

J. Peck, N. Theodore, and N. Brenner (2009) “Postneoliberalism and its Malcontents,” Antipode, 41(6): 1236-1258.

N. Theodore, E. Meléndez, and A. Valenzuela (2009) “Defending Labor Standards for Migrant Workers in the Informal Economy,” International Journal of Manpower 30(5): 422 - 436.

J. Peck, N. Theodore, and N. Brenner (2009) “Neoliberal Urbanism: Models, Moments, Mutations,” SAIS Review 29(1): 49-66.

M. Doussard, J. Peck, and N. Theodore (2009) “After Deindustrialization: Uneven Growth and Economic Inequality in ‘Postindustrial’ Chicago,” Economic Geography 85(2): 183-207.

N. Theodore, J. Peck, and N. Brenner (2009) “Urbanismo Neoliberal: La Ciudad y el Imperio de los Mercados,” Temas Sociales 66: 1-12.

E. Meléndez, N. Theodore, and A. Valenzuela (2009) “Day Laborers in New York’s Informal Economy,” in E. Marcelli, C. Williams, and P. Joussart-Marcelli, eds, The Informal Economy in the Developed World, 133-150. London: Routledge.

J. Peck and N. Theodore (2008) “Carceral Chicago: Making the Ex-offender Employability Crisis,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32(2): 251-281.

H. Cordero-Guzman, N. Martin, V. Quiroz-Becerra, and N. Theodore (2008) “Voting with their Feet: Nonprofit Organizations and Immigrant Mobilization,” American Behavioral Scientist 52(4): 598-617.

N. Theodore, A. Valenzuela, E. Meléndez, and A. L. Gonzalez (2008) “Day Labor and Workplace Abuses in the Residential Construction Industry: Conditions in the Washington, DC Region,” in A. Bernhardt, H. Boushey, L. Dresser, and C. Tilly, eds., The Gloves Off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America’s Labor Market, 91-109. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

N. Theodore (2007) “New Labour at Work: Long-Term Unemployment and the Geography of Opportunity,” Cambridge Journal of Economics 31: 927-939.

J. Peck and N. Theodore (2007) “Variegated Capitalism,” Progress in Human Geography 31(6): 731-772.

N. Theodore and N. Martin (2007) “Migrant Civil Society: New Voices in the Struggle over Community Development,” Journal of Urban Affairs 29(3): 269-287.

J. Peck and N. Theodore (2007) “Flexible Recession: The Temporary Staffing Industry and Mediated Work in the United States,” Cambridge Journal of Economics 31(2): 171-192.

N. Martin, S. Morales, and N. Theodore (2007) “Migrant Worker Centers: Contending with Downgrading in Low-Wage Labor Markets,” GeoJournal 68: 155-165.

N. Brenner and N. Theodore (2007) “Neoliberalism and the Regulation of ‘Environment’” in N. Heynen, J. McCarthy, W.S. Prudham and P. Robbins, eds., Neoliberal Environments: False Promises and Unnatural Consequences, 153-159. London: Routledge.

N. Theodore, N. Martin, and R. Hollon (2007) “Der offentliche Sektor als Sicherheitsmarkt in Chicago,” in V. Eick, E. Töpfer and J. Sambale, eds., Kontrollierte Urbanität. Zur Neoliberalisierung städtischer Sicherheitspolitik, 83-105. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.

J. Peck and N. Theodore (2007) “Temporary Downturn? Temporary Staffing in the Recession and Jobless Recovery” in B V S Prasad and K. Sangeetha, eds., Temping: An Introduction, 111-124. Hyderabad, India: Icfai University Press.

N. Theodore (2007) “Closed Borders, Open Markets: Day Laborers’ Struggle for Economic Rights” in H. Leitner, J. Peck and E. Sheppard, eds., Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban Frontiers, 250-265. New York: Guilford.