Overview

The Chinese Communist Party's response to the wave of factory strikes in the early summer of 2010 has raised important questions about the role that labour plays in the transformation of world orders. In contrast to previous policies of repression towards labour unrest, these recent disputes centring round wages and working conditions have been met with a more permissive response on the part of the state, as the CCP ostensibly seeks to facilitate a transition away from a model of political economy based on 'low-road' labour relations and export dependence. Labour, Geopolitics and Development in East Asia shows that such inter-linkages between labour, geopolitical transformations, and states' developmental strategies have been much more central to East Asia's development than has commonly been recognised. By adopting an explanatory framework of the labour-geopolitics-development nexus, the book theorises and provides an historical analysis of the formation and transformation of the East Asian regional political economy from the end of the Second World War to the present, with particular reference to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China.

Full Product Details

9780415681841

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Reviews

'Drawing on the concept of passive revolution, Kevin Gray successfully highlights the dialectical relationship between the subordination of labour and wider geo-political dynamics underpinning East Asian Development. A must read for political economists!' Andreas Bieler, Professor of Political Economy, University of Nottingham, UK.

'Drawing on the concept of passive revolution, Kevin Gray successfully highlights the dialectical relationship between the subordination of labour and wider geo-political dynamics underpinning East Asian Development. A must read for political economists!' Andreas Bieler, Professor of Political Economy, University of Nottingham, UK. 'Gray's account of unfolding tensions inherent in the political and ideological management of labour in China's capitalist revolution is theoretically sophisticated, compelling in argument and well written.' Garry Rodan, Professor of Politics & International Studies, Murdoch University, Australia.

Author Information

Kevin Gray is Research Fellow at the Department of International Relations, University of Sussex, UK.

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