Carlos Rojas is Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; and Arts of the Moving Image at Duke University. He is the author, editor, and translator of several books, most recently
Ralph A. Litzinger is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and the author of
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; and Arts of the Moving Image at Duke University. He is the author, editor, and translator of several books, most recently
Ralph A. Litzinger is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and the author of
Migration and Shifting Identities
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Published:August 2016
This essay addresses the extent to which export-oriented factories in the textile and garment industries have a specific mode of mediating migrant workers’ experiences of inequality (in its broadest sense), their moral valuation of their labor, and their desires. All of these elements have been shaped in the aftermath of what is generally labeled the postsocialist era, which includes China’s entry into the World Trade Organization and its subsequent intensive capitalist take-off. The essay examines the imbrication of three related forces in workers’ lives: origin stories in relation to the recent socialist past, affective engagements with temporality, and transnational encounters. The essay emphasizes the distinctiveness of the way migrant workers engage these three intertwined forces—in contrast with entrepreneurs and government officials. The approach to global capitalism more broadly in the argument emphasizes cultural histories, (nonessentialized) subjectivities, and situated social action.
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