Diverse managerial control and worker resistance constitute two faces of the power struggle between management and migrant workers in contemporary South China. Their power struggle will be demonstrated in four contested terrains: Exit (the labour market), the labour process, the communication domain, and the reproduction process of labour force. The race of labour demand and supply in the local labour market is the bedrock of the power struggle in the workplace. In the labour shortage period, the high turnover and the insufficient labour supply push management to incorporate the control on worker's exit as an important part into their work. In the labour process, it is hard for management to stick on the overt, punishment-oriented control. Two new control models are created: the laissez-faire control and the "human-based" control. In contrary to the weakening managerial control, worker resistance becomes overt, frequent, and diverse in this period. It includes strike, direct refusal, making troubles, various individual transgressions, and the construction of resistant discourse. Mobile communication creates a new battlefield in which management invents novel ways to enhance control while workers discover new methods of self-protection and resistance. Mobile phone becomes a micro, electronic Panopticon, used by management to locate, track, and control workers. In order to resist the ubiquitous control brought by mobile phone, migrant workers either directly refuse to purchase a mobile phone, or create various excuses to "lose" the connection with management. The factory dormitory is the site where managerial control over the reproduction of labour force can practice. In the labour shortage period, management strengthens their control on the factory dormitory and canteen, in order to stabilize the labour force and reduce the labour cost. Strike, threat, complaint, and looking for alternatives are workers' tactics to resist the dormitory regime. These four contested terrains constitute a new picture of labour politics in South China, which is full of conflicts, ambivalences, contradictions, and innovations. / Key Words: Control, Resistance, Migrant Worker, Labour Politics, Mobile Phone, South China / This research examines a new sophistication in the power struggle between the new generation of migrant workers and their management, in a time of rising labour shortage in South China. Different from previous studies, this research focuses on the dynamic interaction between capital and labour and pays more attention to the creative practices of migrant workers, especially in their readiness to leave unhappy working conditions to seek jobs elsewhere, their strategic utilization of the advantage position in the labour market to fight for their interests, and their use of personal communication technology to open up a space for reshaping work relationships and circumventing control by the management. / Peng, Yinni. / Adviser: Susanne Y. P. Choi. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-10, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 248-257). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_344569 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Contributors | Peng, Yinni., Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Sociology. |
| Source Sets | The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| Language | English, Chinese |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, theses |
| Format | electronic resource, microform, microfiche, 1 online resource (vii, 257 leaves : ill.) |
| Coverage | China, China, China, China |
| Rights | Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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