Contradictions of Market Socialism

Minh T. N. Nguyen is Professor of Social Anthropology in the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. Jingyu Mao is Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh.

“This remarkable volume examines China’s and Vietnam’s contemporary transformations, offering rich case studies on work, mobility and social protection amid hyperflexible accumulation – an essential, timely resource.” Kaxton Siu, Hong Kong Baptist University

• Introduction: Introduction: Hyperflexible accumulation – labour, social reproduction and market socialist contradictions – Minh T. N. Nguyen and Jingyu Mao Part 1: Reproducing labour in hyperflexible accumulation1. The broken dream of autonomy: precarious working conditions in Ho Chi Minh City’s platform economy – Nguyen Duc Loc 2. The rise of the gig economy and the social protection of gig workers in China – Tao Liu 3. Flexible accumulation, division of labour and hierarchisation of care at global factories in Vietnam – Ngoc Luong 4. Producing the flexible working subject: seasonal bonus, the hyper-flexibilisation of labour and welfare arrangements of migrant factory workers in China – Jingyu Mao and Yueran Tian Part 2: Rural–urban connectivity and new trajectories of labour mobility 5. High-tech, low security: Vietnam’s electronics boom and the crisis of reproduction – Do Ta Khanh and Pietro P. Masina 6. Transforming migrant household reproduction: commuterisation and land commodification in central China – Yueran Tian 7. Rural migrants, housing politics and the limits of care in Shenzhen – Yang Zhan and Ludan Zhang Part 3: Marketising social provisioning, degenerating social contract 8. Weakening of social protection in Vietnam: labour legislation, cicada capital and civil society – Angie Ngọc Trần 9. ‘Building the giant nests to host the eagle’: housing and family organisation of FDI workers in Ho Chi Minh City – Pham Thanh Thoi 10. From welfare to real estate: a generational perspective of the financialisation of Chinese steelworkers’ housing – Catrina Schwendener 11. Collateral deposits, the bank of the poor and the caring state: Vietnamese labour migration to the Republic of Korea – Huong Thu Nguyen Part 4: Contestation and disengagement 12. Early withdrawal of pension and contestations over the right to social protection in Vietnam – Tu Phuong Nguyen 13. The narratives of sacrifice: the Third Front and the left-behind – Fan Zhang