About the Book

This book explores the current conditions, subjectivity, and collective actions of autoworkers in the world’s largest and fastest-growing automobile manufacturing nation. Based on years of fieldwork and extensive interviews conducted at seven large auto factories in various regions of China, Zhang provides an inside look at the daily factory life of autoworkers and a deeper understanding of the roots of rising labor unrest in the auto industry. Combining original empirical data and sophisticated analysis that moves from the shop floor to national political economy and global industry dynamics, the book develops a multilayered framework for understanding how labor relations in the auto industry and broader social economy can be expected to develop in China in the coming decades.

Table of Contents

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

More details and sample pages of the book can be found at: