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Class and Precarity: An Unhappy Coupling in China’s Working Class Formation

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  • Chris Smith

    (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)

  • Ngai Pun

    (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Abstract

In refuting Guy Standing’s precariat as a class, we highlight that employment situation, worker identity and legal rights are mistakenly taken as theoretical components of class formation. Returning to theories of class we use Dahrendorf’s reading of Marx where three components of classes, the objective, the subjective and political struggle, are used to define the current formation of the working class in China. Class is not defined by status, identity or legal rights, but location in the sphere of production embedded within conflictual capital–labour relations. By engaging with the heated debates on the rise of a new working class in China, we argue that the blending of employment situation and rights in the West with the idea of precarity of migrant workers in China is misleading. Deconstructing the relationship between class and precarity, what we see as an unhappy coupling, is central to the article.

Suggested Citation

  • Chris Smith & Ngai Pun, 2018. "Class and Precarity: An Unhappy Coupling in China’s Working Class Formation," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(3), pages 599-615, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:32:y:2018:i:3:p:599-615
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017018762276
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ronaldo Munck, 2013. "The Precariat: a view from the South," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(5), pages 747-762.
    2. Hyman, Richard & Gumbrell-McCormick, Rebecca, 2017. "Resisting labour market insecurity: old and new actors, rivals or allies?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84658, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Jurgens, Ulrich & Krzywdzinski, Martin, 2016. "New Worlds of Work: Varieties of Work in Car Factories in the BRIC Countries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198722670.
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    Cited by:

    1. Li, Chunyun, 2021. "From insurgency to movement: an embryonic labor movement undermining hegemony in South China," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101456, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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