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State and Knowledge Production: Industrial Relations Scholarship under Chinese Capitalism

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  • Enying Zheng
  • Simon Deakin

Abstract

We use the evolution of industrial relations scholarship in China to study the role of the state in the process of knowledge production. In the course of the last decade the policy of the Chinese state has shifted from promoting a flexible labour market as part of an export-led growth strategy, to addressing problems of growing labour unrest. This shift has, however, yet to be reflected in research and teaching of industrial relations. Drawing on an archive of over 7,000 articles published in Chinese-language journals, we show that the industrial relations field has failed to cohere in China as it did in North America and Western Europe in response to similar pressures in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Chinese research on labour issues is divided between a practice-orientated human resource management literature and a sociological approach which is isolated from practice and policy. We explain this pattern in terms of the distinctive nature of Chinese capitalism, which manages to be simultaneously state-encompassed yet individualistic, leaving little space for the collective institutions of civil society which have been the focus of industrial relations research in the West.

Suggested Citation

  • Enying Zheng & Simon Deakin, 2016. "State and Knowledge Production: Industrial Relations Scholarship under Chinese Capitalism," Working Papers wp480, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp480
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    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/cbrwp480/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Deakin, Simon & Wilkinson, Frank, 2005. "The Law of the Labour Market: Industrialization, Employment, and Legal Evolution," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198152811, Decembrie.
    2. Xiaoying Li & Richard B. Freeman, 2015. "How Does China's New Labour Contract Law Affect Floating Workers?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 53(4), pages 711-735, December.
    3. King, Gary & Pan, Jennifer & Roberts, Margaret E., 2013. "How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 107(2), pages 326-343, May.
    4. Mingwei Liu, 2010. "Union Organizing in China: Still a Monolithic Labor Movement?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 64(1), pages 30-52, October.
    5. Chen Ding & Deakin Simon, 2015. "On Heaven’s Lathe: State, Rule of Law, and Economic Development," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 123-145, June.
    6. Yi Han & Enying Zheng & Minya Xu, 2014. "The Influence from the Past: Organizational Imprinting and Firms’ Compliance with Social Insurance Policies in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 65-77, June.
    7. Nee, Victor & Opper, Sonja, 2012. "Capitalism from Below: Markets and Institutional Change in China," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674050204, Spring.
    8. Rakesh Khurana, 2007. "Introduction to From Higher Aims to Hired Hands The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession," Introductory Chapters, in: From Higher Aims to Hired Hands The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession, Princeton University Press.
    9. Ronald Coase & Ning Wang, 2012. "How China Became Capitalist," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-01937-0.
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    Cited by:

    1. Simon Deakin & Shelley Marshall & Sanjay Pinto, 2020. "Labour Laws, Informality, and Development: Comparing India and China," Working Papers wp518, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    2. Qiguo Gong & Limin Rong & Hui Wang, 2019. "China?s Manufacturing Strategy Choice: An Integrated Strategic Analysis Framework Combining SWOT and Logical Growth Models," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(11), pages 1290-1305, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Encompassing state; knowledge production; industrial relations; management education; civil society;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J83 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Workers' Rights
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth

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