Judgments of Legitimacy and Illegitimacy : Normative Life in the New Chinese Workplaces
This article analyzes the emergence of labor regulations in the new types of businesses being developed in China today. It studies both the internal codes and regulations established by employers and the legitimacy and illegitimacy judgments expressed when these regulations are implemented. The in...
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| Auteurs principaux: | , |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Français |
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2007
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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cairn-RFS_485_0073 |
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cairn-RFS_485_0073RFS1Revue française de sociologie https://shs.cairn.info/revue-francaise-de-sociologie-1-2007-5-page-73?lang=en https://doi.org/10.3917/rfs.485.0073 Judgments of Legitimacy and Illegitimacy : Normative Life in the New Chinese Workplaces Thireau, IsabelleHua, Linshan2007 fre Revue française de sociologie | 48 | 5 | 2007-12-15 | p. 73-99 | 0035-2969 RFS_48534 This article analyzes the emergence of labor regulations in the new types of businesses being developed in China today. It studies both the internal codes and regulations established by employers and the legitimacy and illegitimacy judgments expressed when these regulations are implemented. The information collected pertains to privately operated Chinese factories, Chinese factories under contract to foreign businesses, and factories whose owners come from Hong Kong or Taiwan but have handed over factory management to an entirely mainland-Chinese workforce. These three types of business have in common the fact of not fitting into either the industrial system that has been in place for several decades in state and collectively run Chinese businesses or the various but well-established management modes imported by foreign businesses into China. Two ways were observed of legitimating the highly detailed but often unstable prescriptions that make up these internal regulations: political categories are used to try to legitimate factory managers’ authority and what is expected of employees; the validity of certain rules is affirmed by merely citing their efficiency, i.e., that they help keep the business running smoothly, though what that means is not further explained. However, interpretation and implementation of these prescriptions give rise to highly diverse judgments of illegitimacy, judgments based on moral principles. These judgments are expressed by migrant employees–many of whom have acceded to supervisorial posts and are therefore called upon to apply the rules– and they foster the emergence of shared ways of doing things. Rules and regulations are thus gradually being developed in the observed factories, determined not only by unilateral prescriptions of the sort some bosses seek to impose, but also by the validity-testing that migrant employees practice on a daily basis.Cairn free access |
| language |
Français |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/Cairn/ |
| description |
This article analyzes the emergence of labor regulations in the new types of businesses
being developed in China today. It studies both the internal codes and regulations established by employers and the legitimacy and illegitimacy judgments expressed when these
regulations are implemented. The information collected pertains to privately operated Chinese factories, Chinese factories under contract to foreign businesses, and factories whose
owners come from Hong Kong or Taiwan but have handed over factory management to an
entirely mainland-Chinese workforce. These three types of business have in common the
fact of not fitting into either the industrial system that has been in place for several decades
in state and collectively run Chinese businesses or the various but well-established management modes imported by foreign businesses into China. Two ways were observed of legitimating the highly detailed but often unstable prescriptions that make up these internal
regulations: political categories are used to try to legitimate factory managers’ authority and
what is expected of employees; the validity of certain rules is affirmed by merely citing their
efficiency, i.e., that they help keep the business running smoothly, though what that means
is not further explained. However, interpretation and implementation of these prescriptions
give rise to highly diverse judgments of illegitimacy, judgments based on moral principles.
These judgments are expressed by migrant employees–many of whom have acceded to
supervisorial posts and are therefore called upon to apply the rules– and they foster the
emergence of shared ways of doing things. Rules and regulations are thus gradually being
developed in the observed factories, determined not only by unilateral prescriptions of the
sort some bosses seek to impose, but also by the validity-testing that migrant employees
practice on a daily basis. |
| author |
Thireau, Isabelle Hua, Linshan |
| spellingShingle |
Thireau, Isabelle Hua, Linshan Judgments of Legitimacy and Illegitimacy : Normative Life in the New Chinese Workplaces |
| author_facet |
Thireau, Isabelle Hua, Linshan |
| author_sort |
Thireau, Isabelle |
| title |
Judgments of Legitimacy and Illegitimacy : Normative Life in the New Chinese Workplaces |
| title_short |
Judgments of Legitimacy and Illegitimacy : Normative Life in the New Chinese Workplaces |
| title_full |
Judgments of Legitimacy and Illegitimacy : Normative Life in the New Chinese Workplaces |
| title_fullStr |
Judgments of Legitimacy and Illegitimacy : Normative Life in the New Chinese Workplaces |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Judgments of Legitimacy and Illegitimacy : Normative Life in the New Chinese Workplaces |
| title_sort |
judgments of legitimacy and illegitimacy : normative life in the new chinese workplaces |
| publishDate |
2007 |
| container_title |
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| container_issue |
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| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://shs.cairn.info/revue-francaise-de-sociologie-1-2007-5-page-73?lang=en https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.3917/rfs.485.0073 |
| _version_ |
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