From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization

Sarosh Kuruvilla is Professor of Comparative Industrial Relations, Asian Studies, and Public Affairs at Cornell University, where he serves as chair of ILR International Programs. Ching Kwan Lee is Professor of Sociology at UCLA and the author of Gender and the South China Miracle and Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Mary E. Gallagher is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and the author of Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China.

Kuruvilla et al. chart the journey from employment security—known as the 'iron rice bowl' in colloquial Chinese—to informalization in 10 chapters. This sad tale is standard fare in the global labour studies literature, but the underlying arguments in this book are more nuanced and at times controversial.... This book... [is a] valuable addition to the Chinese labour relations canon. Kuruvilla et. al. point the way to further research opportunities....- Tim Pringle (British Journal of Industrial Relations)

• 1. Introduction and ArgumentMary E. Gallagher, Ching Kwan Lee, and Sarosh KuruvillaPart I: Informalization and the State2. The Informalization of the Chinese Labor MarketAlbert Park and Fang Cai3. Legislating Harmony: Labor Law Reform in Contemporary ChinaMary E. Gallagher and Baohua Dong4. Social Policy and Public Opinion in an Age of InsecurityMark W. FrazierPart II: Transformation of Employment Relations in Industries5. Enterprise Reform and Wage Movements in Chinese Oil Fields and RefineriesKun-Chin Lin6. The Paradox of Labor Force Dualism and State-Labor-Capital Relations in the Chinese Automobile IndustryLu Zhang7. Permanent Temporariness in the Chinese Construction IndustrySarah SwiderPart III: Unions, Nongovernmental Organizations, and Workers8. "Where There Are Workers, There Should Be Trade Unions": Union Organizing in the Era of Growing Informal EmploymentMingwei Liu9. The Anti-Solidarity Machine?: Labor Nongovernmental Organizations in ChinaChing Kwan Lee and Yuan Shen10. ConclusionMary E. Gallagher, Sarosh Kuruvilla, and Ching Kwan LeeNotesReferencesNotes on ContributorsIndex