Unmaking of the Chinese Working Class

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

244 kr

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Beskrivning

This groundbreaking book tells the story of China's stunning economic rise over the last half-century. Since initiating economic reforms in the late-1970s, China has transformed into one of the strongest competitors on the world's stage. Far from a rejection of its communist political economy, it was China's communist foundation that allowed the country to transition to a robust state-capitalist economy. Ruskola's engaging and accessible account focuses on the organization of land and labor as the key to understanding China's success, explaining how their commodification has remade not only the Chinese nation-state but global capitalism itself.Challenging dominant narratives of economic development, this book demonstrates how the evolution of Chinese state capitalism diverges from both England's passage from feudalism to capitalism and the Soviet Union's post-socialist transformations. Highlighting the planetary limits of development, The Unmaking of the Chinese Working Class is an urgent call to rethink our relationship to labor and land, production and nature.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2026-10-20
Mått:140 x 210 x undefined mm
Vikt:250 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Hundred Flowers
Antal sidor:208
Förlag:Verso Books
ISBN:9781836741367

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Teemu Ruskola is Professor of Law and East Asian Languages and Civilizations at theUniversity of Pennsylvania. He writes on questions of legal history and theory from acomparative and international perspective, often with China as a vantage point. He is the author of Legal Orientalism: China, the United States, and Modern Law.

Recensioner i media

While the West is still debating the essence of the "China model," Teemu Ruskola's The Unmaking of the Chinese Working Class dissects the deep-seated structures of the world's second-largest economy with surgical precision. This groundbreaking work spanning history, sociology, and political economy traces the transformation of China's working class from "socialist labor aristocracy" to "global proletariat" starting from 1949. It not only reshapes our understanding of the fate of China's working and peasant classes but also reveals how China achieved the monumental transition from an agrarian to an industrial society through dual stages of "primitive socialist accumulation" and "primitive capitalist accumulation." Ruskola innovatively juxtaposes China's rural land reform with Britain's Enclosure Movement, exposing their striking similarities and fundamental differences: Britain spurred the Industrial Revolution through violent land expropriation of peasants, while China accomplished capital accumulation in a more covert manner via "land finance" and "new urbanization." The book directly addresses the plight of "landless peasants," warning that capitalism's unchecked expansion is approaching dual ecological and social limits. This work is not only a record of a nation's class transformation but also a profound reflection on human development models: When developmentalism meets ecological crises, and when "common prosperity" collides with capitalist logic, can we find a new path beyond capitalism?

Innehållsförteckning

PrefaceIntroductionCommodifying Humans and NatureChapter 1: Making Workers and PeasantsSocialist Foundations, 1949-1978Chapter 2: Remaking the PeasantRural Industrialization, 1978-1994Chapter 3: Unmaking the WorkerUrban Proletarianization, 1994-PresentChapter 4: Unmaking the PeasantRural Proletarianization, 1994-PresentConclusionLimits of Development in the Age of Chinese Capital