Reworking China's proletariat / Sally Sargeson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sargeson, Sally.

Series:

Studies on the Chinese economy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor--China--Hangzhou--Case studies.

Labor.

Business enterprises--China--Hangzhou--Case studies.

Business enterprises.

China--Economic policy--1976-.

China.

Economic policy.

Proletariat.

China--Hangzhou.

Physical Description:

xviii, 278 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Summary:

The working conditions, attitudes and identities of China's workers have been transformed in the transition to capitalism. Once celebrated as the 'vanguard of the revolution' and 'masters' of the socialist enterprise, they are now referred to as obstacles to modernisation and flexible factors of production. State policies and management strategies expose workers to fierce labour market competition, job insecurity, strict discipline, intense productivity pressures, and status and regional rivalries. In turn, contract and temporary workers' perceptions of the disjuncture between their past and present situations, between rhetoric and reality, inform diffuse attempts at collective organisation and resistance.

Contents:

Part I Theorising China's Proletariat

Class by any other name 5

Theorising the proletariat: identities, consciousness, and behaviour 8

A navigation aid 16

2 Reforming the Proletariat 19

Governing reform 20

Enterprises in the reform era 26

Reforming labour: creating the conditions for exploitation 30

3 Placing the Proletariat 44

Locating the place of identities 45

Place and particularism in Xihu enterprises 60

Part II Experiences and Understandings of Waged Work

4 Recruitment: Segmenting Class 71

Stereotyping jobs and workers 72

Competition for jobs and the significance of hukou: institutionalising outsider-ness 77

Proletarian connections: guanxi 89

Signing them on 94

5 Productive Architecture 103

Spatial signification, subjectivity, and the making of meanings in Chinese work places 104

Factory worlds 108

Fracturing the hegemonic work space 116

6 Labour Processes 124

Commanding production 125

Task allocation 130

Quality control 134

'Strategic social positioning' in the workplace 142

7 A Cipher of Class: The Wage-Labour Bargain 149

The discursive field 150

Wages 154

Inequity and exploitation in the wage-labour bargain 170

Contesting inequity, resisting exploitation 177

Part III Labours of Representation

8 Neighbourhood Identities, Neighbourhood Dispositions 185

The place of identity: locals and outsiders 185

Power and wealth: big people and small people 196

The consumption of face: buying identity 207

Aihua's house: an identity project 215.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 228-263) and index.

ISBN:

0312220472

OCLC:

39700140