Non-legalistic activism from the social margin: Informal workers with pneumoconiosis in Shenzhen

Abstract

This article, contrary to existing studies, argues that informal workers suffering from pneumoconiosis, an occupational illness, prefer to engage in collective action. Migrant workers mobilize collective action through kinship networks and urban ties, which in turn attracts media coverage and encourages external agents to be involved. Local bureaucracies facing mounting pressure usually provide workers with a one-off compensation. The authors, however, note that increasing activism carried out by such workers has been constrained by the current incomplete stage of proletarianization, and resulting, therefore, in ‘non-legalistic, cellular activism’, which has not yet introduced any significant changes with regard to the root causes of pneumoconiosis.