Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Argument Mary E. Gallagher, Ching Kwan Lee, and Sarosh Kuruvilla Part I: Informalization and the State 2. The Informalization of the Chinese Labor Market Albert Park and Fang Cai 3. Legislating Harmony: Labor Law Reform in Contemporary China Mary E. Gallagher and Baohua Dong 4. Social Policy and Public Opinion in an Age of Insecurity Mark W. Frazier Part II: Transformation of Employment Relations in Industries 5. Enterprise Reform and Wage Movements in Chinese Oil Fields and Refineries Kun-Chin Lin 6. The Paradox of Labor Force Dualism and State-Labor-Capital Relations in the Chinese Automobile Industry Lu Zhang 7. Permanent Temporariness in the Chinese Construction Industry Sarah Swider Part III: Unions, Nongovernmental Organizations, and Workers 8. "Where There Are Workers, There Should Be Trade Unions": Union Organizing in the Era of Growing Informal Employment Mingwei Liu 9. The Anti-Solidarity Machine?: Labor Nongovernmental Organizations in China Ching Kwan Lee and Yuan Shen 10. Conclusion Mary E. Gallagher, Sarosh Kuruvilla, and Ching Kwan Lee Notes References Notes on Contributors Index

About the Author

Sarosh Kuruvilla is Professor of Comparative Industrial Relations, Asian Studies, and Public Affairs at Cornell University, where he serves as chair of ILR International Programs. Ching Kwan Lee is Professor of Sociology at UCLA and the author of Gender and the South China Miracle and Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Mary E. Gallagher is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and the author of Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China.

Reviews

"Kuruvilla et al. chart the journey from employment security-known as the 'iron rice bowl' in colloquial Chinese-to informalization in 10 chapters. This sad tale is standard fare in the global labour studies literature, but the underlying arguments in this book are more nuanced and at times controversial... This book ... [is a] valuable addition to the Chinese labour relations canon. Kuruvilla et. al. point the way to further research opportunities..."-Tim Pringle, British Journal of Industrial Relations (March 2013) "This timely volume offers the best empirical analysis of the changing landscape of employment relations in China. It sheds light on the 'hidden abode' of the country's low-cost production: the existence of an ever-growing informal economy that has become a new site of struggle by the workers, activists, employers, and the local and central state actors. The book should appeal to students of China as well as labor scholars in this era of globalization."-Lei Guang, San Diego State University "From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization will find an eager readership among scholars and students interested in Chinese politics broadly, in comparative labor relations, and, of course, in China's labor politics and political economy. The international labor policy community (including China's) will find it of high interest, and corporate managers too would do well to take it very seriously."-Marc Blecher, Oberlin College