Manufacturing Uncertainty: The Politics of Flexible Production in the China's High-Tech Electronics Industry in the Age of Globalization

After 30 years' market reforms and exported-oriented industrialization, China has created an economic miracle by playing the role of a world factory. With a case study of a high-tech electronics manufacturing firm (anonymously referred as HiTek) in Suzhou, this dissertation explores the labor process and labor relations in advanced manufacturing under the global production system and in the context of China's industrial upgrading.;The dissertation develops an analytical framework of the politics of flexible production in the age of the globalizing production. My theoretical discussion begins with the theory of production politics developed by Michael Burawoy. I emphasize that labor process should be examined not only within the workplace, but also in relation to external societal factors. I argue that the pursuit of flexibility of global production changes the structuring of labor process: the external markets are not static conditions to manufacturers, but are now becoming dynamic factors shaping production arrangements and labor control. Hence, I indicate that flexible production has brought about a sophisticated triangular relationship between the buyers from developed countries, the transnational manufacturers in newly industrialized countries, and the workers in developing countries, particularly in China. This is quite different from the previous studies wherein the focus is placed on a simple dual relationship between manufactures and workers within a single country.;In my empirical analysis, I firstly trace how global production network changes the production process and unravel the mutual influences between the labor market with local clustering and the employers' recruitment strategies. I take them as the key background factors in the shaping of the politics of flexible production. Then, I use the case study of HiTek and analyze how it implements the customized mass production with high performance and high flexibility on the shop floor in the face of volatile product markets and labor market. I point out that in order to secure the subordination and better cooperation from its workers, HiTeck gives up the direct coercive despotic factory regime and executes the flexible despotism combining with enforcing strict disciplinary management, responding to workers' interests and rights, and even establishing the internal communication mechanisms. However, I indicate that although workers obtain more legal rights, they fail to effectively improve their labor conditions under the new labor control. In the meantime, the social status of migrant workers restricts their claims for social benefits and enhances their mobility. As a result, workers have to voice and seek to make use labor market opportunities for improving their conditions. Finally, I stress that the consequence of the interaction between the global flexible production and the workers' resistance against labor control leads to the uncertain employment relationship characterized by the high turnover of workers. I also emphasize that it is Chinese workers who finally pay high costs for such a relationship: they not only fail to enhance bargaining powers with their employers, but also suffer from an insecure and uncertain environment.