1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910160302903321

Autore

Zajak Sabrina

Titolo

Transnational activism, global labor governance, and China / / by Sabrina Zajak

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Palgrave Macmillan US : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2017

ISBN

1-349-95022-X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2017.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XI, 286 p. 10 illus.)

Collana

Non-Governmental Public Action

Disciplina

320.6

Soggetti

Public policy

China—History

Labor law

Asia—Politics and government

Globalization

Trade

Business

Commerce

Public Policy

History of China

Labour Law/Social Law

Asian Politics

China

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction: Multilevel labor activism, transnational institutions, and China  -- 2. Defining the shadow of the dragon: China’s internal and external strength  -- 3. The international-organizational pathway: The case of the ILO  -- 4. The bilateral pathway: The European Union and China  -- 5. The market pathway  -- 6. The civil society pathway  -- 7. Conclusion: Labor transnationalism in global markets and plural institutional settings. .

Sommario/riassunto

This book explores rising labor unrest in China as it integrates into the global political economy. The book highlights the tensions present



between China’s efforts to internationalize and accept claims to respect freedom of association rights, and its continuing insistence on a restrictive, and often punitive, approach to worker organizations. The author examines how the global labor movement can support the improvement of working conditions in Chinese factories. The book presents a novel multi-level approach capturing how trade unions and labor rights NGOs have mobilized along different pathways while attempting to influence labor standards in Chinese supply chains since 1989: within the ILO, within the European Union, leveraging global brands or directly supporting domestic labor rights NGOs. Based on extensive fieldwork in Europe, the US and China, the book shows that activists, by operating at multiple scales, were on some occasions able to support improvements over time. It also indicates how a politically and economically strong state such as China can affect transnational labor activism, by directly and indirectly undermining the opportunities that organized civil societies have to participate in the evolving global labor governance architecture. .