Backlash on the Border: Conservatism and the Rise of the New Economy in the San Diego–Tijuana Corridor.

The cities of San Diego and Tijuana have long been economically interdependent. Today, each represents the bifurcated character of the new economy wherein low wage labor in Mexico is used to underwrite the quality of life for the middle class in the United States. This article traces the political origin of this economic structure. Instead of a top-down orchestration of neoliberal governance, the contours of the New Economy were formed through a process of contestation: a battle between international capital and its demands for profit and San Diego's white middle class homeowners dedicated to maintaining their quality of life by resisting border integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]