In Europe, as elsewhere in the global North, the label “Made in China” has become synonymous with low wages, excessive overtime, and exploitative working conditions. Conventional literature on the international division of labor reifies the North–South divide in particular with respect to class formation and labor agency. Contrasting the working conditions in China to those in Europe sets these up as opposites in their managerial practices and treatment of the workforce. This article challenges such dualism and makes visible the commonalities of contemporary global capitalism. It does so by examining Foxconn’s production regimes in China and the Czech Republic and identifying a specific set of strategies on the part of the firm that enable its global organization of production. In indicating which practices Foxconn imported from China and which are an outcome of global extended production, the article challenges the Chinese political economy literature that posits the “Chinese model” as warranted when production is globally organized.
AndrijasevicSacchettoD (2016a) From labour migration to labour mobility? The return of the multinational worker in Europe. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research22(2): 219–231.
2.
AndrijasevicRSacchettoD (2016b) Foxconn beyond China: Capital–labour relations as co-determinants of internationalization. In: SmithCMingweiL (eds) China at Work. A Labour Process Perspective on the Transformation of Work and Employment in China. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 337–360.
3.
AndrijasevicSacchettoD (2017) “Disappearing workers”: Foxconn in Europe and the changing role of temporary work agencies. Work, Employment and Society31(1): 54–70.
4.
BandeljN (2008) From Communists to Foreign Capitalists: The Social Foundations of Foreign Direct Investment in Postsocialist Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
5.
BormannSPlankL (2010) Under Pressure: Working Conditions and Economic Development in ICT Production in Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin: WEED-World Economy, Ecology and Development.
6.
CartierC (2018) Zone analog: The state–market problematic and territorial economies in China. Critical Sociology44(3): 455–470.
7.
ChanA (2011) Strikes in China’s export industries in comparative perspective. The China Journal65: 27–51.
8.
ChengJYoungCZhangXOwusuK (2014) Comparing inter-migration within the European Union and China: An initial exploration. Migration Studies2/3: 340–368.
9.
ChinGPearsonMYongW (2013) Introduction: IPE with China’s characteristics. Review of International Political Economy20(6): 1145–1164.
10.
Czech Statistical Office (2017) Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Republic 2017. Prague: Czech Statistical Office.
11.
ČaněkM (2016) Building the European centre in Czechia: Foxconn’s local integration in regional and global labour markets. In: DrahokoupilJAndrijasevicRSacchettoD (eds) Flexible Workforces and Low Profit Margins: Electronics Assembly between Europe and China. Brussels: ETUI, 95–111.
12.
DickenP (2015) Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy (7th ed.). London: Sage .
13.
DrahokoupilJ (2008) The investment-promotion machines: The politics of foreign direct investment promotion in Central and Eastern Europe. Europe-Asia Studies60(2): 197–225.
14.
ElsonDPearsonR (1981) “Nimble fingers make cheap workers”: An analysis of women’s employment in Third World export manufacturing. Feminist Review7: 87–107.
15.
Evertiq (2007) Asian EMS-firms discover Eastern Europe. Evertiq, 5January. Available (accessed 30 December 2018) at: http://evertiq.com/news/6299
16.
FasenfestD (2018) Is Marx still relevant?Critical Sociology44(6): 851–855. DOI: 10.1177/0896920518784793.
17.
FengX (2017) Manufacturing conflict: The experience of a world factory in a changing China. Modern China43(6): 590–619.
18.
FerchenM (2013) Whose China model is it anyway? The contentious search for consensus. Review of International Political Economy20(2): 390–420.
19.
FriedmanE (2014) The Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Postsocialist China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
20.
Gonzalez-VicenteR (2017) South–South relations under world market capitalism: The state and the elusive promise of national development in the China–Ecuador resource-development nexus. Review of International Political Economy24(5): 881–903.
21.
HuiESIChanCKC (2015) Beyond the union-centred approach: A critical evaluation of recent trade union elections in China. British Journal of Industrial Relations53(3): 601–627.
22.
HungHF (2008) Rise of China and the global overaccumulation crisis. Review of International Political Economy15(2): 149–179.
23.
LiuM (2011) “Where there are workers, there should be trade unions”: Union organizing in the era of growing informal employment. In: KuruvillaSLeeCKGallagherME (eds) From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 157–172.
24.
MeardiG (2007) More voice after more exit? Unstable industrial relations in Central Eastern Europe. Industrial Relations Journal38(6): 503–523.
25.
MezzadraSNeilsonB (2013) Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
26.
MezzadriA (2017) The sweatshop regime: Labouring bodies, exploitation, and garments made in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
27.
MilkmanR (1992) The impact of foreign investment on US industrial relations: The case of California’s Japanese-owned plants. Economic and Industrial Democracy13(2): 151–182.
28.
MeunierS (2012) Political impact of Chinese foreign direct investment in the European Union on transatlantic relations. Briefing Paper, Brussels, European Parliament.
MysíkováM (2012) Gender wage gap in the Czech Republic and Central European countries. Prague Economic Papers3: 328–346.
31.
OhmaeK (1994) The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Global Marketplace. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
32.
PringleT (2011) Trade Unions in China: The Challenge of Labour Unrest. Abingdon: Routledge.
33.
PunN (2016) Migrant Labor in Post-Socialist China. New York, NY: Polity Press.
34.
PunNChanJ (2012) Global capital, the state and Chinese workers. Modern China38(4): 383–410.
35.
PunNSmithC (2007) Putting transnational labour process in its place: The dormitory labour regime in post-socialist China. Work, Employment and Society21(1): 27–45.
36.
PunNTseTNgK (2017) Challenging digital capitalism: SACOM’s campaigns against Apple and Foxconn as monopoly capital. Information, Community and Society. Epub ahead of print 30 November 2017. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1414290.
37.
PunNYuanSYuhuaG, et al. (2014) Worker–intellectual unity: Trans-border sociological intervention in Foxconn. Current Sociology62(2): 209–222.
38.
RadosevicS (2004) The electronics industry in Central and Eastern Europe: A new global production location. Revista de Economía818: 151–164.
39.
SalzingerL (2003) Genders in Production: Making Workers in Mexico’s Global Factories. London: University of California Press.
40.
SmithDA (2017) Globalizing social problems: An agenda for the twenty-first century. Social Problems64(1): 1–13.
41.
SmithCChanJ (2015) Working for two bosses: Student interns as constrained labour in China. Human Relations68(2): 305–326.
42.
Traub-MerzR (2012) The All-China Federation of Trade Unions: Structure, functions, and the challenges from collective bargaining. In: Traub-MerzRNgokK (eds) Industrial Democracy in China: With Additional Studies on Germany, South-Korea and Vietnam. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 11–51.
43.
ZhongyingPWangH (2013) Debating international institutions and global governance: The missing Chinese IPE contribution. Review of International Political Economy20(6): 1189–1214.
