Overview

While a large number of studies exist on political-economic institutional explanations for the prevalence of precarious work, few have delved into the elusive yet critical domain of culture. This is highly pertinent to China and Japan whose shared tradition of Confucianism (broadly defined) continues to inform many aspects of society. In particular, core values such as hierarchy, harmony, and the subordination of individual interests to collective requirements impinge importantly on the iniquitous patterns of precarious work and its surrounding institutions ranging from state policy and legislation to industrial relations and social welfare. The pervasiveness and entrenched nature of culture has been especially evidenced by Japan's distinctly gendered and China's rural-urban citizenship-based labour market stratifications. By bridging culture and institutions, Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan brings a more integrated and nuanced understanding of unequal work, casting fresh light on social change in China, Japan, and beyond. Emphasis is placed not only on macro-level structural scrutiny but also on micro-agency empiricism, i.e. real people's experiences in everyday life. This holistic and comparative approach, as demonstrated by the book, will go a long way towards tackling the negative consequences of precarious work in a wider post-pandemic world.

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9780192849694

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Reviews

Those of us interested in the direction that labor is heading in China and Japan have long awaited a volume like this. Brimming with historical as well as up to date insights on the nature of precarious work in these two economies, this multidisciplinary book is a must-read to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by a significant portion of the labor force today. * Professor Glenda S. Roberts, GSAPS, Waseda University, Japan * Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan tackles a timely topic with big ambitions. From its panoramic view of China and Japan to more intimate portraits of precarious workers, the book glimpses the future of work in the 21st Century. This outstanding collection will transform how we think about temps and giggers in two of the most influential countries in the world economy. * Professor Heidi Gottfried, Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, US * This is an important comparative book. It explores the origins and persistence of insecure work and brings a focus on culture in a search for underlying values within different conditions. Crucially these values are not transhistorical, but remade in different situations and therefore historically conditioned. Both China and Japan have moved away from secure employment in different ways, but with overlaps as well. The book has important chapters on tele-working, gig work, gender, migration, union organising, and forces both producing and challenging insecure work. It is a key reading for comparative understanding of precarious work. * Chris Smith, Emeritus Professor of Organisation Studies and Comparative Management, Royal Holloway University of London *

Those of us interested in the direction that labor is heading in China and Japan have long awaited a volume like this. Brimming with historical as well as up to date insights on the nature of precarious work in these two economies, this multidisciplinary book is a must-read to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by a significant portion of the labor force today. * Professor Glenda S. Roberts, GSAPS, Waseda University, Japan * Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan tackles a timely topic with big ambitions. From its panoramic view of China and Japan to more intimate portraits of precarious workers, the book glimpses the future of work in the 21st Century. This outstanding collection will transform how we think about temps and giggers in two of the most influential countries in the world economy. * Professor Heidi Gottfried, Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, US * This is an important comparative book. It explores the origins and persistence of insecure work and brings a focus on culture in a search for underlying values within different conditions. Crucially these values are not transhistorical, but remade in different situations and therefore historically conditioned. Both China and Japan have moved away from secure employment in different ways, but with overlaps as well. The book has important chapters on tele-working, gig work, gender, migration, union organising, and forces both producing and challenging insecure work. It is a key reading for comparative understanding of precarious work. * Chris Smith, Emeritus Professor of Organisation Studies and Comparative Management, Royal Holloway University of London *

Author Information

Huiyan Fu (PhD, Social Anthropology, University of Oxford) is Senior Lecturer at University of Essex. Her main research interests lie in precarious work, social inequalities, and critical management studies. She is the author of An Emerging Non-Regular Labour Force in Japan: The Dignity of Dispatched Workers (Routledge 2011, 2015) and the editor of Temporary Agency Work and Globalisation (Routledge 2015). Her work also appears in highly ranked journals such as Human Relations, Gender & Society, and British Journal of Industrial Relations.

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