The Gig city: Tech-based revitalization and contingent labor across classes in Chattanooga, TN

Abstract

In Chattanooga, TN, the construction of a fiber optic telecommunications network has led to a tech-based revitalization strategy, and the promotion of entrepreneurial and technical positions within the Downtown. Rather than being a solution for a better labor future, this paper demonstrates how revitalization has served to perpetuate contingent hiring practice across classes and sectors and create contingency in new ones. In focusing on the types of work valorized in public discourse (an educated yet contingent tech sector) and those that remain devalorized (the many ancillary sectors which support tech-based growth) this paper argues for the need for a policy agenda which takes varied labor forms and livelihood strategies into account. The experience of contingency is examined across classes to demonstrate how revitalization discourses and historical discourses perpetuate social disparities despite the connectedness of workers via workforce restructuring.