About the Book
As the "world's factory" China exerts an enormous pressure on workers around the world. Many nations have had to adjust to a new global political and economic reality, and so has China. Its workers and its official trade union federation have had to contend with rapid changes in industrial relations. Anita Chan argues that Chinese labor is too often viewed from a prism of exceptionalism and too rarely examined comparatively, even though valuable insights can be derived by analyzing China's workforce and labor relations side by side with the systems of other nations. The contributors to Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective compare labor issues in China with those in the United States, Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, Vietnam, and Taiwan. They also draw contrasts among different types of workplaces within China. The chapters address labor regimes and standards, describe efforts to reshape industrial relations to improve the circumstances of workers, and compare historical and structural developments in China and other industrial relations systems.
Contributors: Frederick Scott Bentley, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Florian Butollo, Friedrich-Schiller University, Germany; Anita Chan, University of Technology, Sydney, and Australian National University; Chris King-chi Chan, City University of Hong Kong; Yu-bin Chiu, National Pingtung University of Education, Taiwan; Sean Cooney, University of Melbourne; Mary Huong Thi Evans, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Navjote Khara, Niagara College; Kevin Lin, University of Technology, Sydney; Mingwei Liu, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Peter Lund-Thomsen, Copenhagen Business School and Nottingham Business School; Boy Luthje, Institute of Social Research, Frankfurt, Germany and Sun Yat-Sen University, China, and the East-West Center, Honolulu; Khalid Nadvi, University of Manchester; Thomas Nice, Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience; Tim Pringle, SOAS, University of London; Katie Quan, University of California-Berkeley and Sun Yat-Sen University, China; Susan J. Schurman, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Kaxton Siu, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Hong Xue, East China Normal University, Shanghai
Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Fallacy of Chinese Exceptionalism by Anita Chan Part I. Historical and Structural Developments 1. Exporting Corporatism? German and Japanese Transnationals' Regimes of Production in China by Boy Luthje 2. Globalization and Labor in China and the United States: Convergence and Divergence by Mingwei Liu, Frederick Scott Bentley, Mary Huong Thi Evans, and Susan J. Schurman Part II. Labor Standards 3. Recomposing Chinese Migrant and State-Sector Workers by Kevin Lin 4. Industrial Upgrading and Work: The Impact of Industrial Transformation on Labor in Guangdong's Garment and IT Industries by Florian Butollo 5. The Working and Living Conditions of Garment Workers in China and Vietnam: A Comparative Study by Kaxton Siu 6. Race to the Bottom: The Soccer Ball Industry in China, Pakistan, and India by Anita Chan, Hong Xue, Peter Lund-Thomsen, Khalid Nadvi, and Navjote Khara Part III. Trade Unions, Collective Bargaining, and the Right to Strike 7. Labor NGOs under State Corporatism: Comparing China since the 1990s with Taiwan in the 1980s by Chris King-chi Chan and Yu-bin Chiu 8. One Step Forward: Collective Bargaining Experiments in Vietnam and China by Katie Quan 9. Creating a Right to Strike in China: Some Lessons from the Australian Experience by Thomas Nice and Sean Cooney 10. Trade Union Reform in Russia and China: Harmony, Partnership, and Power from Below by Tim Pringle Notes Contributors Index
About the Author :
Anita Chan is Research Professor at the China Research Centre of the University of Technology, Sydney. She is the editor of Walmart in China andChinese Workers in Comparative Perspective, both from Cornell, author ofChina's Workers under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy and Children of Mao: Personality Development and Political Activism in the Red Guard Generation, and coauthor of Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization.
Review :
"Most academic research about the working conditions of Chinese factory workers has been focused on China itself, with little or no reference and comparison to workers and working conditions in other countries. However, this new book edited by Chan (China Research Center, Univ. of Technology, Sydney, Australia) attempts to convince readers that China is not exceptional and that it is critical to use a comparative perspective as an analytical tool to explain China's labor conditions." -R.M. Ramazani,Choice(November 2015) "Anita Chan is one of the world's leading scholars on Chinese labor issues, and this book builds on her interest in framing labor in China in a comparative way. This book avoids the many binaries that place China-for better or worse-in the 'exceptional' category and instead evaluates the changing Chinese labor regime in light of other countries' experiences. The approach is nuanced-the contributors note differences within China, over time, regionally, and by sector, and they also situate China within the context of larger issues reflecting the globalization of supply chains and production."-Richard P. Appelbaum, MacArthur Chair in Global and International Studies and Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, coauthor of Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry "Countries are not islands! Globalizing forces continue to integrate and competitively align economies to emerging world standards. Workers in countries display national and systemic traits, and authoritarian capitalism in China presents a distinctive identity but also a model and multidimensional template. This book provides a much-needed comparative perspective, simultaneously bringing out key points of difference and commonality between Chinese and other workers."-Chris Smith, coeditor of Working Life "China's extraordinary size and speed of change, compounded by its unique political economy, often defies comparison. By questioning the prevailing notion of 'Chinese exceptionalism,' the authors of the book challenge students of labor relations and also policymakers to rethink their approaches to the challenge of labor in the factory of the world."-Changhee Lee, ILO (International Labour Office)
