 From ‘Labour Dividend’ to ‘Robot Dividend’: Technological Change and Workers’ Power in South ChinaYu Huang and Naubahar Sharif Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, 2017, vol. 6, issue 1, 53-78 Abstract: China became the world’s largest market for industrial robots in 2013. The robotic revolution gained pace and occurred after the 2008 financial crisis as many export-oriented firms coped with dwindling orders, rising labour costs and growing concerns over occupational safety. Unlike workers in the Global North who experienced automation in the 1960s and 1970s against a backdrop of strong union activism, whether semi-proletarian peasant-workers in China ultimately enjoy the ‘beneficial’ effects of industrial upgrading is questionable. However, very little social science research has investigated how automation, in light of the negative consequences of unemployment and deskilling, can continue to be advanced. Drawing on Beverley Silver’s concept of workers’ power, this article explores how workers’ marketplace and workplace bargaining power interfaces with technological change. The Chinese case may offer important lessons to those in the under-technologized South seeking to conceptualize strategies for social change in the context of industrial upgrading. Keywords: Robotization; industrial upgrade; semi-proletarianization; workers’ power; China (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:agspub:v:6:y:2017:i:1:p:53-78 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy from Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.