Foreign Labor Regimes and Local Workplace Cultures

李庆坤加州大学洛杉矶分校这项研究调查了中国在赞比亚投资的“劳工问题”。该研究解决了中国企业如何在海外运营的问题，中国管理者的实践和意识形态如何与非洲工人的政治和文化互动，以及这些中国劳工制度与在赞比亚的非中国外国公司的劳工制度有何不同。这项研究将有助于阐明“中国资本主义”在海外扩张并成为全球经济力量时的特殊性。美国国家科学基金会的资金将用于继续这名研究人员两年前在赞比亚开始的一项研究。赞比亚是中国在非洲经营的几个经济特区中的第一个。初步的田野调查发现，劳工——以罢工、抗议、关于中国劳工实践的公共话语的形式——是对中国海外积累模式的主要挑战。本研究采用人种学深度访谈、调查和观察，旨在完成双重比较。首先，它计划通过将中国公司与非中国公司进行比较，来确定中国公司的劳工做法中哪些是“中国的”。其次，该项目比较了赞比亚经济的两个核心行业：铜矿开采和建筑业。采矿是有地域限制的长期投资，雇佣有组织的劳动力，而建筑是短期的、以项目为基础的业务，吸引的大多是临时工和非工会工人。将这两个行业与截然不同的生产条件进行比较，将说明中国“资本”的不同利益、能力和约束，中国“资本”常常被误认为是一种单一的、单一的力量。本研究对“中国对非洲的争夺”和中国作为经济力量的崛起的全球讨论做出了贡献。关于中国投资者的实际行为及其不同影响的实证数据可以为发展政策提供信息。此外，本研究的洲际性质可以作为一个新的模式，以弥合传统上没有联系的区域研究。

SES- 1022570 Ching Kwan LeeUniversity of California-Los AngelesThe study examines "the labor question" of Chinese investments in Zambia. The research addresses the questions of how Chinese firms operate overseas, how the practices and ideologies of Chinese managers interact with the politics and cultures of African workers, and how these Chinese labor regimes differ from those in non-Chinese foreign companies in Zambia. The study will help to elucidate the particularity of "Chinese capitalism" as it expands overseas and becomes a global economic force. NSF funding will be used to continue a study the investigator started two years ago in Zambia, the site for the first of several Chinese-run Special Economic Zones in Africa. Preliminary fieldwork has found that labor--in the forms of strikes, protests, public discourses on Chinese labor practices--is the primary challenge to the Chinese mode of accumulation abroad. Using ethnographic in-depth interviews, surveys and observation, this research is designed to accomplish a double comparison. First, it plans to identify what is "Chinese" about Chinese companies' labor practices by comparing Chinese companies with non-Chinese counterparts. Second, this project compares two industries central to Zambia's economy: copper mining and construction. Whereas mining involves place-bound, long-term investment employing an organized labor force, construction is a short-term, project-based business engaging mostly casual and non-unionized workers. Comparing these two industries with contrasting conditions of production will illustrate the divergent interests, capacity and constraints of Chinese "capital", too often mistaken as a singular and monolithic force. Broader Impacts This research contributes to the global conversation on a "Chinese scramble for Africa" and China's rise as an economic force. Empirical data on the actual practices of Chinese investors and their diverse impacts can inform development policies. Also, the inter-continental nature of this study can serve as a new model for bridging area studies that are traditionally unconnected.