1. Introduction; 2. Industrial restructuring and labor force transformation in the Chinese automobile industry; 3. The labor market and social composition in the automobile industry; 4. Organization of production and factory social order; 5. Hegemonic consent? Formal worker's compliance and resistance; 6. Temporary workers' struggles and the paradox of labor force dualism; 7. The state's response: the making of labor contract law and boundary-drawing strategy; 8. Conclusion.
Lu Zhang explains how labor relations in the auto industry and broader social economy can be expected to develop in China in the coming decades.
Lu Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Temple University. Her work has been published in International Labor and Working Class History and the International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management. She has contributed to five books: Workers in Hard Times: A Long View of Economic Crises (2014), China and Global Governance: The Dragon's Learning Curve (2014), From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China (2011), Globalization and Beyond: New Examinations of Global Power and its Alternatives (2011), and China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism (2009). She received the Thomas A. Kochan and Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association and the Best Dissertation Prize from the journal Labor History. She is currently researching capital relocation strategy and labor politics in China and Vietnam and teaching globalization, labor, development, and political economy in China and East Asia.
'Lu Zhang's highly readable and insightful book offers a
fascinating perspective on the recent wave of strikes in China's
vast and growing automobile industry, drawing on extensive
fieldwork in seven different auto factories. Highlighting the
militancy of young, highly educated temporary auto assembly
workers, who live in factory dormitories and often use social media
as an organizing tool, Zhang shows how they leverage the
ideological legacy of state socialism to challenge the logic of
profit maximization in the world's most dynamic market economy. It
is difficult to imagine a more intriguing case study of
twenty-first-century labor unrest.' Ruth Milkman, Graduate Center,
City University of New York
'Essential reading for anyone interested in labor's fate, not just
in China, but throughout a new world of work in which states and
corporate managers have created a diabolical set of legal and
occupational categories that have divided workers and subverted
solidarity. The power of Zhang's scholarship arises both from her
gritty fieldwork in a series of Chinese factories as well as her
sophisticated understanding of contemporary capitalism.' Nelson
Lichtenstein, MacArthur Foundation Chair in History, University of
California, Santa Barbara
'A worthy successor to the pioneering labor and social movement
studies of Burawoy, Silver, Perry and Lee.' Mark Selden, Senior
Research Associate, East Asia Program, Cornell University, New
York
'A must-read ethnography … Zhang contributes to the study of
Chinese working-class formation with an excellent case.' Pun Ngai,
author of Made in China: Factory Women Workers in a Global
Workplace (2005)
'At first glance, this work by Zhang … appears to be narrowly
focused on China's automobile industry. However, her analysis is
grounded in a much broader macro understanding of the interaction
between economic and political institutions and the evolving
national culture of China. [Her] exploration of the tensions
created by rapid development and growth of China's auto industry -
particularly the organization, control, and compensation of labor -
has implications for the rest of the Chinese economy and global
capitalism more generally … Summing up: highly recommended. All
readers.' Satya J. Gabriel, Choice
'… this book is a must-read for anyone who has an interest in
labour issues - not only in China and not only in the automobile
sector.' Ivan Franceschini, The China Quarterly
'The auto industry has long been a focus of labor scholars, and
Zhang's comprehensive study is a significant contribution to this
literature. Although quite a lot of research on worker resistance
in China is available, few existing studies manage such depth in
analyzing the history and conditions of the industry … [It] is a
very good book based on great empirical work. It is one of the best
books on Chinese labor in recent years and should attract interest
from scholars and practitioners interested in the auto industry,
labor relations, and Chinese politics.' Eli Friedman, ILR
Review
'[Zhang's] book is full of evidence that workers, formal and
temporary, see through the notion that all is fair under 'socialism
with Chinese characteristics' - read, capitalism. They are
experiencing the worst of both worlds - capitalist exploitation and
the harshness of its lean production regime, combined with the
repression of a government accustomed to one-party rule and
determined to keep it that way. Lu Zhang urges us to look past the
'localized, cellular, and apolitical' nature of Chinese workers'
outbursts and instead 'identify the potential for transformation
from below'. The question is whether workers' bravery and
initiative can outmaneuver the corporations and government who are
betting everything on their ability to contain them. The potential
is enormous, as China's rulers are well aware.' Jane Slaughter,
Against the Current
'… [Zhang] gives us an invaluable view of the inner workings of
auto plants under Chinese and joint American, Japanese, and German
ownership … This is notable on two counts. First, ethnographies are
rarely this large in terms of [the number of] interviews … and
second, getting inside auto or other plants in China can be quite
difficult … For its depth and conclusions, this book has the
hallmarks of being a classic.' Thomas Janoski, Perspectives on
Work
'This book provides a much needed examination of labor relations in
an industry that is historically central to the rise of labor
movements. The carefully collected ethnographic data and nuanced
analysis provide important insights into how China's entry into the
global economy is reshaping labor relations and has led to an
increasingly fragmented working class and rising labor strife.'
Sarah Swider, American Journal of Sociology
'This powerful, beautifully structured, deeply and impressively
researched study is a pleasure to read.' Dorothy J. Solinger, The
Journal of Asian Studies
'… undoubtedly the best book in recent times on lean production and
labour control in the Chinese automobile industry.' Annavajhula J.
C. B., Economic and Political Weekly
'It is an advantage of the book that it does not purely focus on
protests, as does a considerable part of studies on Chinese labour
relations. The sector is well chosen as automobile workers have
'played an important role in broader labour movements and succeeded
in transforming relations within the factory and society' … in
other countries throughout history … The major theoretical
innovation of the book can be seen in the departure from the
concept of labour force dualism in China based on the fuzzy concept
of 'migrant workers'; a notion which is widely employed by Chinese
labour scholars but seldom clearly defined. Instead, Zhang argues
that nowadays the root of this dualism is to be found in the
distinction between formal and temporary workers.' Antonia Enssner
and Jessica Pflueger , Work, Employment and Society
'This is a great book! Lu Zhang provides a comprehensive
sociological analysis of work and workers' activism in China's auto
industry during its years of ultra-rapid growth at the beginning of
the twenty-first century. The volume is unique since it offers a
broad picture based on extensive field studies of major automobile
manufacturing sites of different joint ventures of multinational
carmakers and Chinese state-owned automakers.' Boy Lüthje, The
China Journal
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