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Understanding contentious collective action by Chinese laid-off workers: The importance of regional political economy

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Abstract

Episodes of contentious collective action involving laid-off workers have erupted throughout China in recent years. With few exceptions, studies of Chinese laid-off workers’ contention have attempted to generalize from field research in very few⦓r even single⤜ocalities. This limitation has led to several debates that can frequently be addressed by examining differences in political economy among China’s industrial regions. Based on 19 months of fieldwork and over 100 in-depth interviews with workers, managers, and officials in nine Chinese cities, this article offers a systematic, sub-national comparative analysis of laid-off workers’ contention. The article also addresses broader issues in the analysis of social movements and contentious politics, a field that has too often failed to take such regional differences into account.

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William Hurst is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is completing a dissertation on the politics of China’s state-sector lay-offs. His previous publications include “Analysis in Limbo: Contemporary Chinese Politics Amid the Maturation of Reform” (with Lowell Dittmer;Issues & Studies, December 2002/March 2003), and China’s Contentious Pensioners” (with Kevin O’Brien;The China Quarterly, June 2002).

This article benefited from the assistance of many Chinese friends and colleagues in Beijing, Benxi, Chongqing, Datong, Harbin, Luoyang, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Zhengzhou. Kiren Chaudhry, Calvin Chen, Ruth B. Collier, Kenneth Foster, Mark W. Frazier, Douglas Fuller, Mary E. Gallagher, thomas B. Gold, Kun-chin Lin, Chung-in Moon, Kevin O’Brien, Dorothy Solinger, Jaeyoun Won, as well as Judy Gruber and all the participants in her Spring 2003 seminar, and two anonymous reviewers offered extremely helpful comments. For their generous financial support during various stages of my research and writing, I wish to thank: the Fulbright Institute of International Education Program, the National Security Education Program, the Yanjing Institute at Harvard University, the University of Hawaii, Beijing University, the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at SUNY-Albany, the University, of California Institute for Labor and Employment, as well as the Graduate Division, the Institute for International Studies, the Institute for East Asian Studies, and the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California-Berkeley.

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Hurst, W. Understanding contentious collective action by Chinese laid-off workers: The importance of regional political economy. St Comp Int Dev 39, 94–120 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686279

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