Post-Socialist Aspirations in a Neo-<i>Danwei</i>

Cliff, Thomas

doi:10.1086/679272

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…On the contrary, as an important institutional work unit, ZhongXin has experienced large-scale expansion in terms of employment, services and physical existence (vertically) and continues to provide very comprehensive welfare services to its mainstream staff. In this sense, the work unit environment still facilitates the ‘organised dependency’ between workers and the work unit, nurturing ‘neo-traditionalism’ (Walder, 1986) and replicating Maoist work unit characteristics of all-encompassing benefits and dependence for employees (see Cliff, 2015; Kipnis, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering de-danweiisation was also an uneven process, and often focused on enterprise units that were failing to make a profit (Xie and Wu, 2008), it is possible to question the extent of influence the work unit might retain over grassroot communities via their employees. This is explicit when accounting for surviving enterprise units dubbed ‘neo- danwei ’ and their revived socialist work unit practices of welfare provisions (Cliff, 2015). Concurrently, the same can be applied to the institutional work units, which were harder to privatise due to their function of non-profit service provision and therefore less likely to share the demised fate of unprofitable enterprise units (Yang, 2004).…”

Section: Work Unit Reform and Urban Community Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many of these recent studies tend to overlook the influence of work units, assuming the danwei arrangement as a declining structure. Recent observers have noted not only the work units survival, but that many are thriving and reproducing pre-reform socialist practices (Cliff, 2015; Francis, 1996; Keith et al, 2014; Kipnis, 2013). However, these studies are often based on profit driven enterprise work units ( qiye-danwei ) (Phelps et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changing nature of the work units and urban governance in China: The enduring influence of public institutions

Wang

2022

Transactions in Planning and Urban Research

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Economic reform and housing commercialisation have fundamentally changed employer and employee relations and resulted in new patterns of urban governance in China. Consequently, recent research has focused on the emergence of new residential forms, their corresponding homeowners’ associations, neighbourhood committees and shequ governance structures – shedding light on state re-emergence at the grassroots level. However, an important omission in the literature is the changing roles played by the large number of existing work units within urban governance. This paper examines the new status of urban work units and assesses the changing nature of public institutions and their impact on socio-economic relations in communities – using a 70-year-old city hospital ( shiye- danwei) as a case study. Key actor interviews and field observations reveal that these type of work units have created a framework of ‘one work unit, multiple systems’ – where mainstream employees not only enjoyed high pay, enhanced support and benefits at work, but also more opportunities to exercise influence in the neighbourhoods where they live. The case demonstrates that neighbourhoods and work units form two pillars within contemporary Chinese urban society in which shequ, resident associations and the work units all provide social and economic support and concurrently exercise social and political control.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Work Unit Reform and Urban Community Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changing nature of the work units and urban governance in China: The enduring influence of public institutions

Wang

2022

Transactions in Planning and Urban Research

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“…In some public sectors, the past Chinese danwei system was partially retained, even reinvigorated. Workers in these sectors saw job stability and legitimacy increase (Cliff, 2015; Zhang, 2021). The teaching profession, which includes teachers and tutors, fits the dualization definition.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching under opportunism: The predicament of academic tutors in China

Pan¹,

Zhou²

2022

International Sociology

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Academic tutoring as a supplementary form of education has quickly spread across China. Tutoring has attracted young college-educated practitioners and has become a highly organized industry. The industry is fast-churning and opportunistic. This article examines the nature of tutors’ work using the qualitative data of 31 tutors and their managers in Beijing. Characteristics of tutoring are typical of precarious service labor with irregular work schedules, blurred work–life boundaries, and artificial emotional labor. However, we also found that tutors’ work was constrained by their invisible neighbor, schoolteachers, in a linked professional ecology. Tutors have limited jurisdiction over daily tasks and perform reactionary teaching based on school subjects. This lack of control has allowed the industry to rationalize their work, making tutors disposable. Our research offers new insights into the linked professions of tutors and schoolteachers. It enriches the concept of precarious and opportunistic labor practices from the sociology of professions perspective.

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“…These implicit individual choices reflect the public's positive psychological perception of the danwei phenomenon [22,23]. Taken together, these perspectives imply that danwei has a continuing recessionary influence on society, that de-danwei is not a permanent or linear process, and that danwei remains a unity of "social-economic-spatial-psychology" in urban development [24,25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Re-danweilization of SU University During the COVID- 19 Pandemic

Wei

2023

LNEP

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, China restored the management strategy of linking societal administration with spatial territory to prevent and control the spread of the pandemic. This study focuses on the most basic spatial unit of urban segmentation, the danwei, which was first established during the planned economy period. Analyzing SU University as a case study, we examine the background, methods, and process of re-danweilization in China during the COVID-19 pandemic; we evaluate the impact of its reactivation on the overall society and explore whether possible adjustments could be made to improve the effectiveness of the danwei system while preserving urbanism.

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Post-Socialist Aspirations in a Neo-Danwei

Cited by 8 publications

References 5 publications

Changing nature of the work units and urban governance in China: The enduring influence of public institutions

Changing nature of the work units and urban governance in China: The enduring influence of public institutions

Teaching under opportunism: The predicament of academic tutors in China

The Re-danweilization of SU University During the COVID- 19 Pandemic

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