The End of Cheap Labour?

Chinas wirtschaftlicher Aufstieg war eng mit der Rolle des Landes als »Werkbank der Welt« verknüpft. Allerdings scheinen primär kostenorientierte und technologiearme Produktionsmodelle an ihre Grenzen zu stoßen. Die chinesische Regierung setzt daher auf die technologische Aufwertung der Produktion - doch geht mit dem Wandel auch ein Ende der billigen Arbeit einher? Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie zur LED- und Textilindustrie sind ernüchternd: Soziale Verbesserungen betreffen meist nur Hochqualifizierte, während sich an den Grundzügen der prekären Beschäftigung von Arbeitsmigranten kaum etwas ändert. Diese soziale Kluft bleibt ein Hindernis für den Umbau des chinesischen Wachstumsmodells.

Préface
International Labour Studies Internationale Arbeitsstudien

Auteur
Florian Butollo ist wiss. Mitarbeiter im Arbeitsbereich Arbeits-, Industrie- und Wirtschaftssoziologie der Universität Jena.

Contenu

Contents
Acknowledgements 9
1 Introduction: A leap beyond the global factory model? 12
1.1 Rebalancing, industrial upgrading, and social upgrading in academic literature 15
1.2 Structure of the presentation and research methods 20
1.3 Main results and their interpretation 24
Part I: China's growth model and the conditions for its transformation 27
2 Origins and character of the Chinese economic growth model 29
2.1 Extensive and intensive regimes of accumulation: The regulationist legacy 30
2.2 Uneven and combined development and its impact on forms of accumulation in latecomer economies 37
2.3 The rise of China from a global perspective 42
2.4 Summary 58
3 Industrial upgrading and the rebalancing conundrum: Contested trajectories of reform 59
3.1 Mounting contradictions of the Chinese growth model 59
3.2 Government initiatives for rebalancing and industrial upgrading 67
3.3 Industrial transformation in the PRD 77
3.4 Structural constraints for rebalancing 80
3.5 Rebalancing and industrial upgrading: Half full or half empty glass? 83
Part II: A research framework for industrial and social upgrading in Chinese industries 95

4. Industrial and social upgrading: Definition and theoretical concepts 97
   4.1 Industrial upgrading in disintegrated production networks 97
   4.2 Governance, global hierarchies, and entry barriers 100
   4.3 Innovation offshoring and the quest for emerging market access: A destabilisation of spatial hierarchy? 105
   4.4 State intervention, innovative capabilities, and the domestic market 109
   4.5 Types of firm level upgrading 112
   4.6 Economic and social upgrading 113
   4.7 Conclusions for the research strategy 117
   5 Object of research, hypotheses, and methods for the empirical investigation 121
   5.1 Object of research 121
   5.2 Hypotheses 124
   5.3 Research method 126
   Part III: Empirical analyses of industrial upgrading and social upgrading 143
   6 The "LED revolution"-Disruption of production networks in the lighting industry and the rise of China 145
   6.1 LED lighting-successor of conventional lighting technologies 146
   6.2. The Chinese LED industry: Meteoric rise with obstacles 174
   6.3 LED case studies 187
   6.4 Summary and outlook 217
   7 China's textile and garment industry: Export leadership, booming domestic market and upgrading opportunities 225
   7.1 The new landscape of global textile and garment production 225
   7.2 Growth and transformation of China's textile and garment industry 240
   7.3 Case studies from the textile and garment industry 258
   Part IV: Conclusion 343
   8 Polarisation of skills and wages as obstacle for economic rebalancing 345
   Table credits 364
   Bibliography 366
   Literature 366
   Newspaper articles and online sources 384
   Websites and databases 390
   List of interviews 391