From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China

by Sarosh Kuruvilla (Editor), Ching Kwan Lee (Editor), Mary E. Gallagher (Editor)

Overview

In the thirty years since the opening of China's economy, China's economic growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. At the same time, however, its employment relations system has undergone a gradual but fundamental transformation from stable and permanent employment with good benefits (often called the iron rice bowl), to a system characterized by highly precarious employment with no benefits for about 40 percent of the population. Similar transitions have occurred in other countries, such as Korea, although perhaps not at such a rapid pace as in China. This shift echoes the move from "breadwinning" careers to contingent employment in the postindustrial United States.

In From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization, an interdisciplinary group of authors examines the nature, causes, and consequences of informal employment in China at a time of major changes in Chinese society. This book provides a guide to the evolving dynamics among workers, unions, NGOs, employers, and the state as they deal with the new landscape of insecure employment.

Contributors: Fang Cai, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Baohua Dong, East China University of Politics and Law; Mark W. Frazier, University of Oklahoma; Mary E. Gallagher, University of Michigan; Sarosh Kuruvilla, Cornell University; Ching Kwan Lee, UCLA; Kun-Chin Lin, King's College, London; Mingwei Liu, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Albert Park, University of Oxford; Yuan Shen, Tsinghua University; Sarah Swider, Wayne State University; Lu Zhang, Temple University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801462931
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2011
Series:	Frank W. Pierce Memorial Lectureship and Conference Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sarosh Kuruvilla is Professor of Comparative Industrial Relations, Asian Studies, and Public Affairs at Cornell University, where he serves as chair of ILR International Programs. Ching Kwan Lee is Professor of Sociology at UCLA and the author of Gender and the South China Miracle and Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Mary E. Gallagher is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and the author of Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction and Argument Mary E. Gallagher Ching Kwan Lee Sarosh Kuruvilla 1

Part I Informalization and the State

2 The Informalization of the Chinese Labor Market Albert Park Fang Cai 17

3 Legislating Harmony: Labor Law Reform in Contemporary China Mary E. Gallagher Baohua Dong 36

4 Social Policy and Public Opinion in an Age of Insecurity Mark W. Frazier 61

Part II Transformation of Employment Relations in Industries

5 Enterprise Reform and Wage Movements in Chinese Oil Fields and Refineries Kun-Chin Lin 83

6 The Paradox of Labor Force Dualism and State-Labor-Capital Relations in the Chinese Automobile Industry Lu Zhang 107

7 Permanent Temporariness in the Chinese Construction Industry Sarah Swider 138

Part III Unions, Nongovernmental Organizations, and Workers

8 "Where There Are Workers, There Should Be Trade Unions": Union Organizing in the Era of Growing Informal Employment Mingwei Liu 157

9 The Anti-Solidarity Machine?: Labor Nongovernmental Organizations in China Ching Kwan Lee Yuan Shen 173

10 Conclusion Mary E. Gallagher Sarosh Kuruvilla Ching Kwan Lee 188

Notes 193

References 205

Notes on Contributors 223

Index 227

What People are Saying About This

Lei Guang

This timely volume offers the best empirical analysis of the changing landscape of employment relations in China. It sheds light on the 'hidden abode' of the country's low-cost production: the existence of an ever-growing informal economy that has become a new site of struggle by the workers, activists, employers, and the local and central state actors. The book should appeal to students of China as well as labor scholars in this era of globalization.

Marc Blecher

From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization will find an eager readership among scholars and students interested in Chinese politics broadly, in comparative labor relations, and, of course, in China's labor politics and political economy. The international labor policy community (including China's) will find it of high interest, and corporate managers too would do well to take it very seriously.

Editorial Reviews

Kuruvilla et al. chart the journey from employment security—known as the 'iron rice bowl' in colloquial Chinese—to informalization in 10 chapters. This sad tale is standard fare in the global labour studies literature, but the underlying arguments in this book are more nuanced and at times controversial.... This book... [is a] valuable addition to the Chinese labour relations canon. Kuruvilla et. al. point the way to further research opportunities....

British Journal of Industrial Relations - Tim Pringle

"This timely volume offers the best empirical analysis of the changing landscape of employment relations in China. It sheds light on the 'hidden abode' of the country's low-cost production: the existence of an ever-growing informal economy that has become a new site of struggle by the workers, activists, employers, and the local and central state actors. The book should appeal to students of China as well as labor scholars in this era of globalization."

Lei Guang

"From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization will find an eager readership among scholars and students interested in Chinese politics broadly, in comparative labor relations, and, of course, in China's labor politics and political economy. The international labor policy community (including China's) will find it of high interest, and corporate managers too would do well to take it very seriously."

Marc Blecher

"Kuruvilla et al. chart the journey from employment security—known as the 'iron rice bowl' in colloquial Chinese—to informalization in 10 chapters. This sad tale is standard fare in the global labour studies literature, but the underlying arguments in this book are more nuanced and at times controversial. . . . This book . . . [is a] valuable addition to the Chinese labour relations canon. Kuruvilla et. al. point the way to further research opportunities. . . ."—Tim Pringle, British Journal of Industrial Relations (March 2013)

"This timely volume offers the best empirical analysis of the changing landscape of employment relations in China. It sheds light on the 'hidden abode' of the country's low-cost production: the existence of an ever-growing informal economy that has become a new site of struggle by the workers, activists, employers, and the local and central state actors. The book should appeal to students of China as well as labor scholars in this era of globalization."—Lei Guang, San Diego State University

"From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization will find an eager readership among scholars and students interested in Chinese politics broadly, in comparative labor relations, and, of course, in China's labor politics and political economy. The international labor policy community (including China's) will find it of high interest, and corporate managers too would do well to take it very seriously."—Marc Blecher, Oberlin College

From the Publisher