Some Assembly Required: Work, Community, and Politics in China’s Rural Enterprises
by Calvin Chen
Harvard University Press, 2008 Cloth: 978-0-674-02783-1 Library of Congress Classification HD2910.Z8C4414 2008 Dewey Decimal Classification 338.0951242
ABOUT THIS BOOK | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
One linchpin of China’s expansion has been township and village enterprises (TVEs), a vast group of firms with diverse modes of ownership and structure. Based on the author’s fieldwork in Zhejiang, this book explores the emergence and success of rural enterprises.
This study also examines how ordinary rural residents have made sense of and participated in the industrialization engulfing them in recent decades. How much does TVE success depend on the ruthless exploitation of workers? How did peasants-turned-workers develop such impressive skills so quickly? To what extent do employees’ values affect the cohesion and operations of companies? And how long can peasant workers sustain these efforts in the face of increasing market competition?
The author argues that the resilience of these factories has as much to do with how authority is defined and how people interact as it does with the ability to generate profits. How social capital was deployed and replenished at critical moments was central to the eventual rise and consolidation of these enterprises as effective, robust institutions. Without mutual respect, company leaders would have found it impossible to improve their firms’ productivity, workplace stability, and long-term viability.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Figures xiii
1 Introduction: The Emergence of China's
Rural Enterprises 1
Approaches to Understanding Enterprise
Success / 7
Revisiting the Factory: Outlines of a
Micro-level Approach / 11
Sources and Methods / 20
Overview of the Study / 25
2 Seeds of Transformation: Ecology,
Society, and Politics
in Two Townships 27
Location, Location, Location:
Ecological and Social Legacies / 30
The Limited Reach of the State/ 39
Actualizing Self-reliance /46
Concluding Remarks /51
3 Enterprise Survival: Ensuring
Industrial Success 53
Enterprise Beginnings / 56
Initial Work Conditions / 64
Worker Profiles / 71
Authority Relations in the Factory / 74
Refashioning the Enterprise Cadre
Relationship / 81
Concluding Remarks / 86
4 Enterprise Expansion: Mass Production
and Centralization 88
A New Production Approach / 90
Refashioning Authority Relations / 101
The Fragmented Enterprise / 116
Concluding Remarks / 123
5 Enterprise Reintegration: Reconsidering
Growth
and Community 125
Flexible Management: A Better Path to
Organizational
Stability? / 128
Imperfect Results: The Unanticipated
Challenges of
Explosive Growth / 135
Recasting and Rebuilding Enterprise
Solidarity / 145
Imperfection Redux: The Party's
Limited Impact / 159
Concluding Remarks / 166
6 Conclusion: What Lies Ahead? 168
The Argument Revisited / 171
A Grassroots Understanding of Rural
Enterprises / 176
Future Challenges / 181
Reference Matter
Notes 195
Bibliography 207
Index 219
Some Assembly Required: Work, Community, and Politics in China’s Rural Enterprises
by Calvin Chen
Harvard University Press, 2008 Cloth: 978-0-674-02783-1
One linchpin of China’s expansion has been township and village enterprises (TVEs), a vast group of firms with diverse modes of ownership and structure. Based on the author’s fieldwork in Zhejiang, this book explores the emergence and success of rural enterprises.
This study also examines how ordinary rural residents have made sense of and participated in the industrialization engulfing them in recent decades. How much does TVE success depend on the ruthless exploitation of workers? How did peasants-turned-workers develop such impressive skills so quickly? To what extent do employees’ values affect the cohesion and operations of companies? And how long can peasant workers sustain these efforts in the face of increasing market competition?
The author argues that the resilience of these factories has as much to do with how authority is defined and how people interact as it does with the ability to generate profits. How social capital was deployed and replenished at critical moments was central to the eventual rise and consolidation of these enterprises as effective, robust institutions. Without mutual respect, company leaders would have found it impossible to improve their firms’ productivity, workplace stability, and long-term viability.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Figures xiii
1 Introduction: The Emergence of China's
Rural Enterprises 1
Approaches to Understanding Enterprise
Success / 7
Revisiting the Factory: Outlines of a
Micro-level Approach / 11
Sources and Methods / 20
Overview of the Study / 25
2 Seeds of Transformation: Ecology,
Society, and Politics
in Two Townships 27
Location, Location, Location:
Ecological and Social Legacies / 30
The Limited Reach of the State/ 39
Actualizing Self-reliance /46
Concluding Remarks /51
3 Enterprise Survival: Ensuring
Industrial Success 53
Enterprise Beginnings / 56
Initial Work Conditions / 64
Worker Profiles / 71
Authority Relations in the Factory / 74
Refashioning the Enterprise Cadre
Relationship / 81
Concluding Remarks / 86
4 Enterprise Expansion: Mass Production
and Centralization 88
A New Production Approach / 90
Refashioning Authority Relations / 101
The Fragmented Enterprise / 116
Concluding Remarks / 123
5 Enterprise Reintegration: Reconsidering
Growth
and Community 125
Flexible Management: A Better Path to
Organizational
Stability? / 128
Imperfect Results: The Unanticipated
Challenges of
Explosive Growth / 135
Recasting and Rebuilding Enterprise
Solidarity / 145
Imperfection Redux: The Party's
Limited Impact / 159
Concluding Remarks / 166
6 Conclusion: What Lies Ahead? 168
The Argument Revisited / 171
A Grassroots Understanding of Rural
Enterprises / 176
Future Challenges / 181
Reference Matter
Notes 195
Bibliography 207
Index 219