The Making of Labour Precarity in China since 1949

Globally, most workers live precarious lives. In this examination of China's industrial relations since 1949, Xiaojun Feng explores why this should be. China provides an important case to examine this question because it has gone through both socialist revolution and marketized reforms, the major economic and political dynamics that have shaped the world since the twentieth century. Developing a comprehensive analytical framework for the interpretation of archives, interviews and participant observation, Feng explores the causes of and potential remedies for labour precarity in China. Bridging the 1949 and 1978 divides, this study unveils continuities and more fundamental discontinuities across these watershed moments, and sheds fresh light on the extent to which popular policy can counter labour precarity and the future dynamics of labour movements.

List of contents

1. Introduction; 2. Precarious Wage Labour before 1949; 3. Incipient Socialist Surplus Appropriation, Exclusion, and Decommodification, 1949-1957; 4. Radical Inclusion and Radical Exclusion, 1958-1965; 5. Rebellion, Regularization, and Rebounding, 1966-1976; 6. Restoring Exploitation, Recalibrating Exclusion, and Recommodification since 1977; 7. Rise of Agency Labour and Regulations for Labour Protection; 8. Formal and Agency Workers in the 2010s; 9. Labour Precarity in Historical and Comparative Perspective; Appendix: List of Interviews; Bibliography; Index.

About the author

Xiaojun Feng is Associate Professor of Sociology at China Agricultural University.

Product details

• Authors: Feng Xiaojun
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 30.11.2025
• EAN: 9781009640534
• ISBN: 978-1-009-64053-4
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: Cambridge Studies in the History of the People's Republic of China
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; China, Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, HISTORY / Asia / General, 21st Century, 21st century history: from c 2000 -, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Asian History, Sociology: work & labour, Early 21st century c 2000 to c 2050, Sociology: work and labour, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period)