Suchergebnisse

"China's economic success has been founded partly on relatively cheap labour, especially in export industries. In recent year, however, there has been growing concern about wages and labour standards in China. This book examines how wages are bargained, fought over and determined in China, exploring how the pattern of labour conflict has changed over time since the 1970s"--Provided by publisher.

ABSTRACTUsing the concept of 'constrained agency' introduced by Neil Coe and David Jordhus‐Lier, this article attempts to evaluate the possibilities and constraints facing labour agency in the Pearl River Delta in China. By reviewing the social, economic and political background of the changing labour market and labour regulations in China, and through an intensive case study of a workers' strike and its consequences, the author argues that Chinese migrant workers have begun to challenge the state's regulatory regime on labour, which is based on individual rights. However, the introduction of a regulatory framework based on collective rights is being impeded by the party‐state's manipulation of trade unions and the strong influence of global capital on local labour policy.

AbstractThis article analyzes the process of working-class formation under the ongoing industrialization in China by studying how the trade union has been contested by migrant workers in their strikes in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) over the past three decades. The cases presented here are emblematic of workers' struggles that have aroused public attention in the specific period of analysis. The author suggests that the trade union as a class organization has been a contested domain for migrant workers' struggles in the PRD. Through their collective actions, workers' class consciousness and strategies towards class organization have steadily advanced in the process of China's integration into the global economy.

Der unbegrenzte Nachschub an billigen, nicht organisierten Arbeitskräften vom Lande hat China zum globalen Produktionszentrum werden lassen. Die potenzielle Fähigkeit der chinesischen Arbeiter, daran etwas zu ändern, hat eine wichtige Bedeutung für die weltweite Arbeitspolitik. Der Beitrag zeigt auf der Basis ethnographischer Fallstudien, in wie weit die Macht der Arbeiterklasse in Südchina in den letzten Jahren gestiegen ist. Der Verfasser wendet sich gegen den vorherrschenden Trend in der Arbeitssoziologie, der vom Ende der Arbeiterklasse spricht und von nicht-klassenspezifischen Identitäten ausgeht. Seiner Ansicht nach hat die Ausweitung der globalen Produktion auf China den Klassenkampf am Arbeitsplatz und darüber hinaus verschärft, auch wenn die staatliche Regulierungspolitik die Klassenbildung verzerrt. Ohne Organisationen auf Klassenbasis bleibt die Entstehung einer Arbeiterbewegung unwahrscheinlich. Dennoch bleiben die instabilen Arbeitsbeziehungen und der instabile Arbeitsmarkt Herausforderungen für Staat und Unternehmensführungen. Sie führen zu einer ständigen Verbesserung der allgemeinen Arbeitsbedingungen. (ICEÜbers)

This study presents the case study of a collective action against a proposed industrial waste-water disposal project in the city of Qidong, Jiangsu province in 2012 to explore the role of collective identity in the formation and mobilisation of environmental protests in contemporary China. It is suggested that collective identity articulated through protest is not just a static property of a certain group of people based on their history, culture and locality. Collective identity also works as a flexible framing strategy that can be pragmatically constructed or reconstructed by the discontents, as it interacts with the specific political context in the process of mobilisation. (China/GIGA)