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From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China

Online ISBN:
9780801462931
Print ISBN:
9780801450242
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Book

From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China

Sarosh Kuruvilla (ed.),
Sarosh Kuruvilla
(ed.)
Professor of Comparative Industrial Relations, Asian Studies, and Public Affairs, Cornell University
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Ching Kwan Lee (ed.),
Ching Kwan Lee
(ed.)
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Mary E. Gallagher (ed.)
Mary E. Gallagher
(ed.)
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Published online:
18 August 2016
Published in print:
7 July 2011
Online ISBN:
9780801462931
Print ISBN:
9780801450242
Publisher:
Cornell University Press

Abstract

In the thirty years since the opening of China's economy, China's economic growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. At the same time, however, its employment relations system has undergone a gradual but fundamental transformation from stable and permanent employment with good benefits (often called the iron rice bowl) to a system characterized by highly precarious employment with no benefits for about 40 percent of the population. Similar transitions have occurred in other countries, such as Korea, although perhaps not at such a rapid pace as in China. This shift echoes the move from “breadwinning” careers to contingent employment in the post-industrial United States. This book examines the nature, causes, and consequences of informal employment in China at a time of major changes in Chinese society. It provides a guide to the evolving dynamics among workers, unions, NGOs, employers, and the state as they deal with the new landscape of insecure employment.

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