Social Ties, Resources, and Migrant Labor Contention in Contemporary China
Social Ties, Resources, and Migrant Labor Contention in Contemporary China

Author: Jeffrey Becker

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2014-07-22

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0739191861

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The growth of China’s internal migrant labor population is one of the most important issues emerging from the Hu Jintao regime. As China continues to undergo an urbanization process as profound as any in modern history, there is little doubt migrant workers are affecting economic and political decision making at the central and local levels. Relying on interviews with over 250 Chinese migrant workers—peasant farmers who have moved to the cities in search of work—as well as interviews with Chinese labor activists, this book explores the evolution of migrant labor protest in China over the past three decades. It examines how migrant workers engage in protest today, and how they choose from available protest strategies. While past studies of Chinese rural to urban migration have long acknowledged the importance of traditional rural ties between family members, this book demonstrates how new urban ties: help migrant workers learn of new protest options, navigate the legal system, connect with others sharing similar disputes, and identify additional resources. The book also examines the growth and importance of Chinese migrant labor rights organizations and the role of information communication technology in migrant labor protest activity. The findings presented here shed new light on Chinese state-society relations and economic development. Moreover, the findings from this book, which demonstrate how economic reforms create opportunities for protest, and how migrant workers take advantages of these opportunities, have implications for our understanding of contentious politics in other authoritarian states undergoing similar economic and demographic transition.

Local Clusters in Global Value Chains
Local Clusters in Global Value Chains

Author: Valentina De Marchi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-28

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1351724002

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The international fragmentation of economic activities – from research and design to production and marketing – described through the lens of the global value chain (GVC) approach impacts the structure and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) agglomerated in economic clusters. The consolidation of GVCs ruled by global lead firms and the recession of 2008-09 exacerbated the pressures on cluster actors that based their competitive advantage on local systems, spurring an increasing heterogeneity, both across and within clusters, that is still overlooked in the literature. Drawing on detailed studies of different industries and countries, Local Clusters in Global Value Chains shows the co-evolutionary trajectories of clusters and GVCs, and the role of firms and their strategies in organizing manufacturing and innovation activities in the context of ongoing technological shifts. The book explores the tension between place-based variables and global drivers of change, and the possibility for territories containing such clusters to prosper in the new global scenario. By adopting insights from the GVC framework and management studies, the book discusses how the internationalization strategies of firms create opportunities as well as constraints for adaptive upgrading in clusters. This book is of interest to both researchers and policy-makers who are interested in the dynamic sources of competitive advantage in the global economy.

China and EU
China and EU

Author: Jing Men

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-05-12

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 1134991851

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Reform and governance are of vital interest to both the People’s Republic of China and the European Union (EU). China is facing demographic and environmental challenges and has been experiencing a rapid economic transition. The social tensions arising from these challenges call for a governance system that will allow the Chinese leadership to alleviate social tensions without putting at risk their leadership. A society which is becoming more diverse and facing problems of a global scale that also cause turmoil at the grass roots may be difficult to govern top-down. Notwithstanding the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) grip on Chinese society, there may be ways to integrate public opinion and civil society organisations in governmental decision-making through reforms that do not challenge the current leadership. The EU, on the other hand, faces the same global challenges with a very different and complex governance system. EU foreign and security policy, thus including EU policy towards China, are governed by the EU’s foreign policy principles, which contain, among others, the promotion of democracy, the rule of law and the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms. How successful can the EU be in advancing these principles when engaging with China, while respecting the Chinese political system? How can the EU and China find common grounds in their governance systems so as to enhance their strategic partnership in order to tackle global issues that need a coordinated approach?

The Dictator's Dilemma
The Dictator's Dilemma

Author: Bruce Dickson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-05-16

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0190228571

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Many observers predicted the collapse of the Chinese Communist Party following the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, and again following the serial collapse of communist regimes behind the Iron Curtain. Their prediction, however, never proved true. Despite minor setbacks, China has experienced explosive economic growth and relative political stability ever since 1989. In The Dictator's Dilemma, eminent China scholar Bruce Dickson provides a comprehensive explanation for regime's continued survival and prosperity. Dickson contends that the popular media narrative of the party's impending implosion ignores some basic facts. The regime's policies may generate resentment and protest, but the CCP still enjoys a surprisingly high level of popular support. Nor is the party is not cut off from the people it governs. It consults with a wide range of specialists, stakeholders, and members of the general public in a selective yet extensive manner. Further, it tolerates and even encourages a growing and diverse civil society, even while restricting access to it. Today, the majority of Chinese people see the regime as increasingly democratic even though it does not allow political competition and its leaders are not accountable to the electorate. In short, while the Chinese people may prefer change, they prefer that it occurs within the existing political framework. In reaching this conclusion, Dickson draws upon original public opinion surveys, interviews, and published materials to explain why there is so much popular support for the regime. This basic stability is a familiar story to China specialists, but not to those whose knowledge of contemporary China is limited to the popular media. The Dictator's Dilemma, an engaging synthesis of how the CCP rules and its future prospects, will enlighten both audiences, and will be essential for anyone interested in understanding China's increasing importance in world politics.

Urban Crime and Social Disorganization in China
Urban Crime and Social Disorganization in China

Author: Haiyan Xiong

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-10-19

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9812878599

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The book selects Guangzhou, which has the highest crime rate in China, as a research site to study patterns of crime and social disorganization. It combines methods of content analyses with ethnographic fieldwork. The research first selected 1422 crime cases reported by the influential Southern Metropolis Daily in 2013 to identify the general crime-distribution pattern. The findings suggest that both spatial and demographic-density distribution of criminal cases in Guangzhou show a gradient circle pattern from city center to suburb. Focusing on three selected typical communities, the thesis finds important patterns of crime and social disorganization that are very different from Western research. These findings are organized according to major correlates of social disorganization, including unemployment, marriage and family, residential stability, ethnic heterogeneity, social equality, social capital, social control, social isolation and social exclusion, community cohesion, trust and fear, traditions, morals and beliefs, language. These findings extend and elaborate Social Disorganization Theory in urban China. This book can be used as a textbook for college and Ph.D. students majoring in law and sociology, as well as a reference book for professionals in related fields. Although academic, this book is written in such a way that it will also appeal to a general audience.

Workers and Change in China
Workers and Change in China

Author: Manfred Elfstrom

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-01-21

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1108831109

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Rising labour unrest is changing Chinese governance from below; Elfstrom shows that this is occurring in unexpected and contradictory ways.

Contentious Politics in China
Contentious Politics in China

Author: Manfred Elfstrom

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-12-16

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 9004425128

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China has become a land of protests, though the Chinese state possesses considerable administrative capacity. In this volume, Manfred Elfstrom and Yao Li provide an overview of Chinese contentious politics. They dig deep into major forms of social conflict, explore structural explanations for why protest occurs in China, and describe the ways in which various organizations and framings of issues by citizens affect how protests play out. Shifting to where grassroots activism ultimately leads, Elfstrom and Li survey China’s coercive and conciliatory institutions for maintaining social control, document and explain patterns in the state’s handling of different types of resistance, and examine the social and political impact of unrest. This work not only contributes to a deeper understanding of contentious politics and governance in China, but also provides insights for studies of social movements and authoritarian politics in general.

Rekindling the Strong State in Russia and China
Rekindling the Strong State in Russia and China

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-04-20

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 9004428895

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Rekindling the Strong State in Russia and China offers a thorough analysis of the profound regeneration of the State and its intense interaction with the external projections of Russia and China. In the international political scene, leaderships are under constant negotiation. Financial crisis, social and cultural transformations, values setting and migration flows have a deep impact on global powers, leading to the appearance of new actors. At present, the assumed rise of a new axis between two emerging powers, such as Russia and China, effaces their different backgrounds, leading to misinterpretations of their positioning in the geopolitical arena. This book is an essential and multifaceted guide aimed at understanding the deep changes that affect these two countries and their global aspirations. Contributors are: Marco Puleri; Andrea Passeri; Marco Balboni; Carmelo Danisi; Mingjiang Li; Mahalakshmi Ganapathy; Rosa Mulè; Olga Dubrovina; Evgeny Mironov; Yongshun Cai; Vasil Sakaev; Eugenia Baroncelli; Sonia Lucarelli; Nicolò Fasola; Stefano Bianchini; Stanislav Tkachenko; Vitaly Kozyrev; Marco Borraccetti; Francesco Privitera; Antonio Fiori, Massimiliano Trentin; Arrigo Pallotti; Giuliana Laschi; Michael Leigh.

China at Work
China at Work

Author: Mingwei Liu

Publisher: Red Globe Press

Published: 2016-02-26

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1137433280

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"Part of the Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment series, China at Work is an edited collection that brings together leading and emerging young researchers on the Chinese workplace. This book discusses key features and contrasts in employment and labour conditions within China, as well as reviewing the impact of Chinese firms operating outside of China. Containing cutting-edge research that captures the diversity of the Chinese workplace today, it provides an up-to-date exploration of trade unions & NGOs, employment reform, labour activism and old, new and emerging labour processes and management regimes."--Back cover.