Description
Book SynopsisBy bridging culture and institutions, this book aims to bring a more integrated and nuanced understanding of unequal work, with a view to casting fresh light on social change in China, Japan, and beyond.
Trade ReviewThose of us interested in the direction that labor is heading in China and Japan have long awaited a volume like this. Brimming with historical as well as up to date insights on the nature of precarious work in these two economies, this multidisciplinary book is a must-read to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by a significant portion of the labor force today. * Professor Glenda S. Roberts, GSAPS, Waseda University, Japan *
Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan tackles a timely topic with big ambitions. From its panoramic view of China and Japan to more intimate portraits of precarious workers, the book glimpses the future of work in the 21st Century. This outstanding collection will transform how we think about temps and giggers in two of the most influential countries in the world economy. * Professor Heidi Gottfried, Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, US *
This is an important comparative book. It explores the origins and persistence of insecure work and brings a focus on culture in a search for underlying values within different conditions. Crucially these values are not transhistorical, but remade in different situations and therefore historically conditioned. Both China and Japan have moved away from secure employment in different ways, but with overlaps as well. The book has important chapters on tele-working, gig work, gender, migration, union organising, and forces both producing and challenging insecure work. It is a key reading for comparative understanding of precarious work. * Chris Smith, Emeritus Professor of Organisation Studies and Comparative Management, Royal Holloway University of London *
Table of ContentsHuiyan Fu: Introduction: The culture of unequal work: Temps and giggers in China and Japan 1: Huiyan Fu: Old and new inequalities: Citizenly discounting and precarious work in a changing China 2: Saori Shibata: Gender, precarious labour and neoliberalism in Japan 3: Machiko Osawa and Jeff Kingston: Teleworking in pandemic Japan 4: Jude Howell: Organising around precarity in China 5: Arjan Keizer: Precarious work and challenges facing Japanese unionism 6: Akira Suzuki: Organising temporary agency workers in Japan: Two types of inclusive union responses 7: Nana Zhang: Negotiating gender, citizenship and precarity: Migrant women in contemporary China 8: Elaine Jing Zhao: Hierarchies, shadows and precarity: Cultural production on online literature platforms in China 9: Shinji Kojima: Making sense of inequalities at work: The micropolitics of everyday negotiation among non-regular workers in Japan 10: Emma E. Cook: 'I'm not a real freeter': Aspiration and non-regular labour in Japan
