Precarity,Cognitive (Non-)Resistance and the Conservative Working Class in China

ABSTRACT

Workers’ resistance is crucial to understanding how the working class respond to the growing labour precarity in post-socialist China. The labour studies literature posits that inequality and volatile capital movements increase workers’ precarity and lead to stronger labour resistance, such as strikes. However, workers’ cognition as an integral part of resistance has been rarely studied. This article examines cognitive resistance by Chinese workers from different tier cities by looking at their social trust, class identity, understanding of policies and class solidarity. Despite capital movements and precarity causing more labour unrest, it does not necessarily lead to a stronger cognitive resistance. While inequality and precarity are greater in the more developed megacities with a shifting capital favourability, workers in megacities display a more conservative cognitive resistance than those from the lower-tier cities. This study of workers’ cognitive resistance provides insight into the future of the Chinese labour movement. It argues that the working class’s current cognitive non-resistance suggests that even if a window of opportunity were to appear in the wall of state oppression, workers are not cognitively prepared to coalesce into a coherent social movement that would bring about transformative changes.     

What explains the rise of majority–minority tensions and conflict in Xinjiang?

ABSTRACT

In the past few years there has been a rise of inter-ethnic violence in China. While ethno-cultural repression and ineffective state policies are correctly attributed as key culprits behind this reality, this article suggests that socio-economic factors play a fundamental contributory role as well. Using the Xinjiang case, the article maps ethnic tensions and violence as a manifestation and expression of a growing and heightened ethno-cultural consciousness stemming from ethnic minorities’ low socio-economic status due, in part, to internal Han migration, and a labour market process – involving agency and structure – that has shaped a split and segmented labour market.     

The veterans’ gala: the use of tradition in an industrial labour conflict in contemporary Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

Since its privatization in 1995, Kazakhstan’s largest steel mill has been in a restructuring process characterized by workforce reduction, augmented pressure on remaining jobs and labour conflict over wages, work conditions and corporate social responsibility. In 2013, in an attempt to re-establish harmonious relationships with workers, management invited the mill’s former labour aristocracy to join a newly established veterans’ council, a forum resembling traditional aksakal councils, to discuss the company’s difficult situation. In the context of a banquet in honour of the veterans, tradition became the contested terrain over which labour and capital struggled to endorse their own visions of the industrial future. As corporate capitalist visions of efficiency and professionalism, ethno-national concerns for harmony and stability, and practices rooted in the Soviet labour legacy clash, tradition is staged by actors as a practice which can either affirm or challenge industrial leadership in a labour conflict.     

The Future of the European “Social Model” in the Global Economy

This article examines the prospects for European welfare states in the context of globalization. It begins with a critical review of the globalization arguments. While there is some evidence that external constraints make life harder for policymakers seeking positive-sum outcomes, it is the combination of national debt and spending limits, plus domestic tax resistance, that really count in making expenditure-based social and employment policies more difficult in certain countries. In understanding the constraints and opportunities that will shape Europe's welfare future, globalization—crudely understood—is therefore much less influential than many suppose. While EMU has radically diminished national autonomy in exchange rate, monetary policy, and fiscal policy, there are also beneficial consequences for social policy and broader economic management. On the employment and social policy side, initiatives required to match greater flexibility with sustained security are now at the top of the EU agenda, and mechanisms for diffusing best practice across Europe are being put in place. Within this framework, European welfare states must place more emphasis on dynamic equality, being primarily attentive to the worst off, more hospitable to incentive-generating differentiation, and actively vigilant with regard to the openness of opportunity structures.     

Getting Out of Debt: Garnishment of Wage in Whose Interest?

Garnishment of wage as a way for creditors to enforce payment by unwilling or insolvent debtors, while very common in Germany and Switzerland, is not very successful. Based on a dynamic model of debtor behaviour, this paper explores two alternatives of reform. One is to reduce the rate of garnishment, which at present amounts to 100 percent of the wage income exceeding a defined subsistence level, thus probably destroying incentives to work. According to model simulations, reducing the rate of garnishment is likely to result in an increase of labour supply but a decrease of garnishment revenue per period. Second, the introduction of a debt release as it exists in the United States would have an ambiguous effect on labour supply. While providing debtors with a fresh start, it would result a partial loss for creditors. A Pareto improvement thus does not seem to be possible. When taxpayers as an involved third party are taken into account, however, a potential Pareto improvement appears attainable through debt release.     

论劳动关系中的保密义务和竞业禁止

用人单位与劳动者约定竞业禁止可以减少用人单位商业秘密被侵犯的机会,但劳动者的保密义务不以当事人之间的明示约定为前提。用人单位与劳动者之间的竞业禁止协议必须建立在真正的契约自由的基础之上,以用人单位存在可保护的商业秘密为前提,并不得侵犯劳动者的基本人权。     

对教育与生产劳动相结合的再认识

教育与生产劳动相结合是马克思主义的教育基本原理 ,也是现代生产和现代教育的基本规律。但在教育实践发展的过程中出现了一些不良倾向和问题 ,需要对其做理论探源 ,并结合时代发展 ,重新认识其内涵、目的、内容和途径     

保安处分制度理论研究六十年

建国六十年来的保安处分制度研究涉及三个方面的内容，即保安处分的基本理论、保安处分的适用问题和当代中国的保安处分制度。基本理论的内容集中在保安处分的原则、保安处分与刑罚的关系、保安处分的适用（条件、宣告和执行）等问题上。其中，又以保安处分与刑罚关系的一元论与二元论之争影响最大。     

西方发达国家劳动力市场的社会管理与公共服务研究

就业与失业问题一直以来是关系经济和社会全面发展的制约性因素。在处理和调节劳动力市场供求关系方面,西方发达国家采取了相应的社会管理政策和公共服务,为有效应对经济和社会发展中出现的矛盾和危机进行了有益的尝试。     

人权视角下罪犯劳动权的保障

劳动权与人们的生存和发展有关，属于基本人权的范畴，已经得到绝大多数国家宪法的确认。对于受拘禁的罪犯来说，劳动是对其实施矫正的基本手段，但劳动同样也应是罪犯享有的基本权利，应当得到平等的保障，而人权的视角无疑将会为罪犯劳动权的保障提供最充分的理由、最大化的内容和最完善的保障措施。因此，如何从人权视角对罪犯劳动权进行保障尤其重要。