Les mutations du monde du travail en Chine : du constat aux questions théoriques

Abstract

The article reviews China’s changing labour environment since the 1990s. These include the disappearance of the old working class inherited from the socialist era; the emergence of a new working class comprised of rural emigrants (worker-peasants or mingong); and, more recently, the consequences of economic tertiarisation and flexible working. It also highlights the main issues currently being debated in academic litterature. Workers’ propensity for conflict and resistance to the domination of capital interests has sparked a variety of interpretations as well as vigorous debate. The very existence of a Chinese working class, in the Marxist sense of the term, remains highly debated.

Keywords

• China
• working class
• conflicts
• flexibilisation
• tertiarisation