Dual Labor Market Theory and the Institutionalization of Farmers’ Markets: Marginalized Workers Adapting to Inhospitable Conditions in Louisiana

Abstract

There has been some evidence to suggest that women and people of color have optimized their status as marginalized employees in a dual labor economy by institutionalizing their expanding participation in secondary labor market activity. To determine the validity of this claim, the author explores the historical antecedents of dual labor markets, describes the hegemonic patterns evident in industrialized nations that reflect bifurcated labor market patterns, examines the institutionalization of other second-tier industries that have facilitated improvements for marginalized laborers in the past, and suggests that the recent institutionalization of yet another industry, urban farmers’ markets, provides compelling evidence that second-tier workers have successfully adapted under prevailing inhospitable and discriminatory labor market conditions. Data compiled from case studies drawn from registration lists and observational field techniques at two farmers’ markets located in the State of Louisiana supports the author’s second-tier adaptation paradigm.