This book draws on research into a multinational corporation (MNC) in Qingdao, China, and delves deep into the power dynamics at play between Korean management, Chinese migrant workers, local-level Chinese government officials, and Chinese local gangs. Located within the chain of global garment production, the multinational corporation was under the incessant demand to cut production costs that continually destabilizes the factory regime of the corporation. The relentless demand of price cuts, the decreasing business profits, and the outmoded production facilities forced management to change t ... More

This book draws on research into a multinational corporation (MNC) in Qingdao, China, and delves deep into the power dynamics at play between Korean management, Chinese migrant workers, local-level Chinese government officials, and Chinese local gangs. Located within the chain of global garment production, the multinational corporation was under the incessant demand to cut production costs that continually destabilizes the factory regime of the corporation. The relentless demand of price cuts, the decreasing business profits, and the outmoded production facilities forced management to change the factory regime, which resluted in a relatively rapid transformation from despotic to paternalist regimes. The book demonstrates how a particular MNC struggled with the pressure to be increasingly profitable while negotiating a clash between Korean and Chinese cultures, traditions, and classes on the floor of a garment factory. Beyond a one-dimensional observation based on corporate greed or an exploitation model, it captures the daily struggles of management, mid-level personnel, and workers who struggle, each in their own way, to survive the pressures of laboring in a global market system. The book also pays particular attention to common features of post-socialist countries such as the greater importance of social connection and backroom influence in business. By analyzing the contentious collaboration between foreign management, factory workers, government officials, and gangs, it contributes not only to the research on the politics of resistance but also to our understanding of how global and local forces interact.