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Faltering standardization: Conflict and labour relations in China's taxi and sanitation industries
Author(s) -
ZHANG Hao,
FRIEDMAN Eli
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international labour review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.433
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1564-913X
pISSN - 0020-7780
DOI - 10.1111/ilr.12206
Subject(s) - marketization , standardization , sanitation , consolidation (business) , china , institutionalisation , business , economic growth , political science , economics , engineering , finance , environmental engineering , law
The marketization of municipal services in China's cities from the 1990s triggered a wave of strikes beginning in the 2000s that provided an impetus towards standardization and the re‐regulation of employment conditions. On the basis of a study of the sanitation and taxi industries in the cities of Wenzhou and Guangzhou, the authors find that local governments have utilized three strategies in promoting standardization: unionization, public policy implementation and business consolidation. Although outcomes vary across the cases considered, institutionalization remains weak at best and conflicts persist. The article concludes by presenting a schema for comparing the different strategies identified in these cases and those historically institutionalized in the West.