The Role of Labor Regimes in Reconfiguring Global Production Networks in China and Vietnam

劳工制度在中国和越南重新配置全球生产网络中的作用

• 批准号: 2613457
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2613457
• 关键词: Role; Labor; Regimes; Reconfiguring; Global

Since 2013, China has embarked on a set of infrastructureprojects and free trade deals throughout Asia, Europe andAfrica that are collectively referred to as the Belt and RoadInitiative. Energy, transport and industrial infrastructure isorganized into multi-national corridors that promise to bringtogether laboring populations from different countries intostreamlined transnational networks, allowing firms fromChina and elsewhere to tailor the production processaccording to where unit labor costs are cheapest. Whileinvestors, business strategists and economists tend toconsider labor inputs as a given, labor supply and theconditions of work are developed and reproduced throughconcrete formations called 'labor regimes.' Workers aresocially differentiated by race, gender and migration status;relations between labor and management determine theproduction process; the available means of attaininghousing, food and education constrain the value of wages;and, political struggles for democratic rights impact thepossibility of economic gains. These factors, among others,constitute a given labor regime and dictate the patterns ofuneven development. This research project will examinetwo connected labor regimes in flux: in the Pearl RiverDelta, where garment and electronics factories are beingreorganized and relocated abroad, and in Vietnam, alongthe China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor, aplanned belt of infrastructure and special trade zones in theBRI.In 2013, the Chinese Communist Party announced a projectthat would eventually be called the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI). Consisting of a cluster of six overland logisticalcorridors through Central Asia to Europe and a series ofseaports in the Indian Ocean, the BRI promises toeconomically integrate more than 60 countries via direct3 / 11free trade agreements across Asia, Europe and Africa(Olinga-Shannon 2019). The most striking feature of the BRIis the massive scale of the plans, suggesting a process ofcohering a distinct pan-Afro-Eurasian region, composedsimultaneously of traditional inter-state agreements andsubnational-supranational conglomerations of investmentorganized primarily into interlocking corridors.In my research, I will explore two interrelated problems-spatial scale and labor regimes-as they pertain to the BRI.The question of scale and its ambiguity haunts much of theliterature about the BRI, encompassing work on both theproject's causes and putative consequences. Though somescholars (cf. Ye 2020) primarily apprehend the drivers ofthe BRI on the level of state agency, as a strategicgeopolitical project, others, such as Professor Akhter, givepriority to secular economic processes compelling theactions of states, that is, at a supranational scale of capitalaccumulation. Akhter (2018), following Harvey (1982),frames this relocation of surpluses as a 'spatial fix,' inwhich locally over-accumulated capital is redeployed tonew areas, creating new spaces of production andcirculation, often at new scales. Akhter applies this lens tothe BRI, relating it to problems of surplus capital andindustrial overcapacity (cf. Hung 2008; Li 2016), andsituating it within a longer process in which labor-intensiveindustry in the east coastal regions has been relocated inthe underdeveloped western provinces, in the WesternDevelopment Project, and abroad, in the 'Go Out' campaign(cf. Zhu and Lan 2016; Zhang 2014).

自2013年以来，中国在亚洲、欧洲和非洲开展了一系列基础设施项目和自由贸易协议，这些项目和协议统称为“一带一路”倡议。能源、交通和工业基础设施被组织成多国走廊，有望将不同国家的劳动人口聚集到流线型的跨国网络中，使中国和其他地方的公司能够根据单位劳动力成本最便宜的地方调整生产过程。虽然投资者、商业战略家和经济学家倾向于将劳动力投入视为给定的，但劳动力供应和工作条件是通过被称为"劳动制度"的具体形式发展和再生产的。“工人在社会上因种族、性别和移民身份而不同;劳资关系决定了生产过程;获得住房、食物和教育的可用手段限制了工资的价值;而争取民主权利的政治斗争影响了经济收益的可能性。这些因素，除其他外，构成了一个特定的劳动制度，并决定了不均衡发展的模式。这一研究项目将考察两个不断变化的相互关联的劳工制度：在珠江三角洲，服装和电子工厂正在重组并搬迁到国外;在越南，沿着中国-中南半岛半岛经济走廊，一个计划中的基础设施带和BRI的特别贸易区。2013年，中国共产党宣布了一个最终被称为“一带一路”倡议（BRI）的项目。“一带一路”倡议由中亚至欧洲的六条陆上物流走廊和印度洋的一系列海港组成，承诺通过亚洲、欧洲和非洲的直接3/11自由贸易协定在经济上整合60多个国家（Olinga-Shannon 2019）。一带一路最显著的特点是计划的规模之大，这意味着一个独特的泛非洲-欧亚地区的融合过程，该地区同时由传统的国家间协议和主要组织成连锁走廊的次国家-超国家投资集团组成。在我的研究中，我将探讨两个相互关联的问题-空间尺度和劳动制度-规模及其模糊性的问题困扰着关于“一带一路”的许多文献，包括对该项目的原因和推定后果的研究。虽然有些学者（cf。Ye 2020）主要在国家机构层面理解BRI的驱动因素，作为一个战略地缘政治项目，其他人，如Akhter教授，优先考虑迫使国家行动的世俗经济进程，也就是说，在超国家规模的资本积累。Akhter（2018）继Harvey（1982）之后，将这种盈余的重新分配定义为“空间修复”，即当地过度积累的资本重新部署到新的地区，创造新的生产和流通空间，通常是新的规模。Akhter将这个透镜应用于BRI，将其与剩余资本和工业产能过剩问题联系起来（参见Hung 2008; Li 2016），并将其置于一个更长的过程中，在这个过程中，东部沿海地区的劳动密集型产业已经转移到欠发达的西部省份，在西部大开发项目中，以及在“走出去”运动中，国外（cf. Zhu和Lan 2016; Zhang 2014）。