Authors:
- Explores Chinese economical reform
- Examines ruling class leadership in China
- Identifies how capitalist hegemony applies to modern day China
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Series in Asian Labor and Welfare Policies (Series in Asian Labor and Welfare Policies)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book contends that the Chinese economic reform inaugurated since 1978 has been a top-down passive revolution, in Gramsci’s term, and that after three decades of reform the role of the Chinese state has been changing from steering the passive revolution through coercive tactics to establishing capitalist hegemony. It illustrates that the labour law system is a crucial vehicle through which the Chinese party-state seeks to secure the working class’s consent to the capitalist class’s ethno-political leadership. The labour law system has exercised a double hegemonic effect with regards to the capital-labour relations and state-labour relations through four major mechanisms. However, these effects have influenced the Chinese migrant workers in an uneven manner. The affirmative workers have granted active consent to the ruling class leadership; the indifferent, ambiguous and critical workers have only rendered passive consent while the radical workers has refused to give any consentat all.
Reviews
“Hui has produced an important contribution to the literature on labour politics, civil society, and legal reform in China, and her deep and systematic theoretical engagement brings fresh perspective to these issues. Hui’s work should be required reading for anyone interested in the academically and practically crucial question of why Chinese workers submit to their ownexploitation.” (Eli Friedman, The China Quarterly, Vol. 234, June, 2018)
“Hegemonic Transformation represents an important contribution to the field of Chinese labor studies. Not only does it convincingly address the fundamental paradox of labor in contemporary China (i.e., the coexistence of blatant labor abuses with well-developed labor legislation), it also indicates promising new avenues for future research. I highly recommend it.” (Ivan Franceschini, The China Journal, Vol. 81, January, 2018)
“Hegemonic Transformation deftly weaves together breathtaking grand theory, meticulous explication of workers' thinking, and careful middle-range analysis comparing variation amidst the broad similarities. Like a great cubist painting, it produces a multifaceted portrait of the contradictions of workers' politics in China: its activism and passivity, its anger and acceptance, its power and powerlessness, and the coercion and, centrally, consent that shape it. An original, important, persuasive and indispensable account that takes this much-studied topic to a new level.” (Prof. Marc Blecher, Oberlin College)
“In a strategy of passive revolution, the Chinese party-state implemented capitalist social relations of production by force from 1978 onwards. As Elaine Sio-ieng HUI, however, demonstrates in this fascinating book, in view of increasing unrest in industrial relations, the Chinese party-state has moved towards a new strategy recently, attempting to establish capitalist hegemony based on new labour laws and discourses around ‘China’s dream’ and a ‘moderately prosperous society’. While successful with many workers, some only render passive consent. Moreover, radical workers continue challenging capitalist hegemony. In line with Gramsci’s understanding, hegemony is after all a terrain of continuous and open-ended class struggle. A must-read for all scholars and activists, who are interested in the changing Chinese form of state within global capitalism.” (Prof. Andreas Bieler, Nottingham University)
“A superb contribution to our understanding of the Chinese state in the reform period! Hui skilfully uses Gramscian concepts to meticulously analyse how the Party/state crafts labour relations through the law to develop hegemonic rule in China. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, she carefully builds her argument that China has undergone a passive revolution. This book has to be essential reading for students and researchers interested in the political economy of China’s market reforms, labour issues and governance.” (Prof. Jude Howell, London School of Economics and Political Science)
Authors and Affiliations
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School of Labor and Employment Relations, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Germany
Elaine Sio-ieng Hui
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Hegemonic Transformation
Book Subtitle: The State, Laws, and Labour Relations in Post-Socialist China
Authors: Elaine Sio-ieng Hui
Series Title: Series in Asian Labor and Welfare Policies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50429-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-349-70019-6Published: 08 September 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-95886-3Published: 18 June 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-50429-6Published: 31 October 2017
Series ISSN: 2730-7956
Series E-ISSN: 2730-7964
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 266
Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations
Topics: Political Theory, Asian Culture, Organizational Studies, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Sociology, general, Political Science