Platform-mediated Informal Employment, the State, and Labor Politics in China

Jenny Chan presents an overview of platform-mediated labor in China with an emphasis on informal employment, the role of the state, and labor politics. She draws from her fieldwork observing food and parcel delivery workers, and her synthesis of recent studies on delivery and ride-hailing services. Comprehensive and perceptive, the chapter considers the linkages between formal and informal labor as conceptualized in labor laws and policies. Through an intersectional analysis of class, gender, and migration, she offers a nuanced understanding of recruitment and experiences of workers in platform-mediated jobs, which are sources of both worker precarity and resistance. She shows how couriers at the tail end of the logistics chain rely on family members to complete their tasks, illuminating the emergence of “a less visible form of homework.” The denigration of Chinese rural immigrants by the government and employers ensures ongoing neglect of their health and welfare in the informal platform economy, perpetuating class conflicts in China’s state-capitalist development.