The role of social network in production regime and labor protest : a study on the migrant construction workers in China

Abstract

This thesis aims to address the variations in production regime and labor protest in China’s construction industry. Using the theory of production politics, it looks at why different production regimes emerge and under what conditions migrant construction workers protest in the same political and economic environment. It shows that the social network structures which construction workers and subcontractors are embedded in is a decisive variable that shapes production regimes and likelihood of labor protest. The structural characteristics and relational content of network ties determined workers’ perceptions and behaviors in specific construction teams.

I conducted an ethnographic study of five construction sites in four cities during July 2015 to July 2017. I interviewed 69 migrant construction workers, 10 labor supervisors, 4 subcontractors and 9 persons from construction companies. I also conducted nonparticipant observation on those sites. The findings show that there are three production regimes governing the relationship between workers and subcontractors. First, there is patriarchal familialism where the subcontractor directly recruits workers who share strong ties with them, such as relatives, friends and fellow villagers, thus constituting a spiderweb network structure. Constrained by mutual trust, moral obligation and affection between workers and the subcontractor, workers treat the subcontractor more as a patriarch rather than a capitalist pursuing profit. The subcontractor relies on workers’ self-management and soft control measures to organize production. Second, there is decentralized despotism where a construction team organizes in a satellite network structure, and workers and the subcontractor share weak ties as the subcontractor used intermediaries to recruit workers. As this network is infused with economic calculation, the subcontractor adopts coercive measures to manage, supervise and control workers. Workers are also aware of the antagonistic relationship with the subcontractor. Finally, there is principled egalitarianism, which results in a circular network structure where the boundary of roles between worker and subcontractor is vague and all team members are skilled to work on similar positions. These teams run on craft administration where there is no centralized authority specifying the organization of production. Equipped with craft knowledge, workers also control their own labor process.

I also look at workers’ labor protests that is differentiated by the different production regimes. In patriarchal familialism, workers tend not to protest when the subcontractor violates their rights, which is in contrast to decentralized despotism where workers constantly protest when they encounter grievance and exploitation. Those workers in principled egalitarianism have a much stronger bargaining position and collective action capacity.

This thesis explores how social networks shape migrant construction workers’ labor regimes and their likelihood of labor protests. Structurally, the way workers are linked to subcontractors constitute specific network structures that define workers’ roles and positions in the network; culturally, workers and subcontractors are constrained by different relational content of network ties. Altogether, the thesis concludes that the social network that workers and subcontractors are embedded within determine the differences in production regimes and labor protests.