Contextualizing precarious work: labor dispatch, boundary-drawing, and the politics of labor regulation in post-socialist China

Abstract

This article examines the rise of labor dispatch–a fast-growing form of precarious work–and its regulation politics in post-socialist China. Drawing on qualitative research, the author argues that rather than generalized deregulation and state retrenchment, the development of labor dispatch in China is shaped by the intertwined dynamics of precarization and dualization, with the state playing a predominant role in uneven regulation and institutionalized dualism. Through a case study of the automobile industry, the article investigates agency workers’ social composition, subjective workplace experiences, and struggles. It highlights the boundary-drawing strategy pursued by the state and employers to strike a balance between increasing labor flexibility and profitability and maintaining certain stability and legitimacy with a core workforce. However, this strategy has also generated new terrains of contradiction and resistance by agency workers. The state re-regulation to limit labor dispatch in the face of rising labor disputes and agency workers’ discontents channeled by the official trade union, suggests that labor politics in post-socialist China is a contested process. These findings advance a contextualized, dynamic approach to the study of precarious work that emphasizes the contradictions of capitalism, the historical and national contexts, boundary-drawing dynamics, and key actors in shaping the contours of precarious work.