Research Day: Intercultural and International Perspectives on Management (IIPM)
Venue: International Building, Room 244
The Research Day is focused on new PhD research on work, society and employment in China. It brings together the current work of students at the Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong, and offers contemporary ethnographic accounts of new trends in work and society in China from critical, activist and Marxist inspired perspectives. The research is in many cases innovative and pioneering, such as research on AI factories use of disabled workers and the internet industry. Papers also examine the Chinese experience of gig work, logistics workers and entrepreneurship. In addition to a focus on labour in production, some papers examine the reproduction of labour power, gender and young workers struggles to get decent vocational training against the pressures of big business and the state to fit training systems into the needs of capital and not workers.
The day is meant to be developmental and offers a rich collection of presentations on highly topical issues.
There will be a meal after the day at Acquolina in Bocca, in Egham. All are most welcome.
Timetable
9:45-10:00 |
Welcome and coffee |
10:00-10:15 |
Chris Smith (Royal Holloway, University of London) & Pun Ngai (Hong Kong University, (HKU)) Introduction of Royal Holloway and Hong Kong University PhD students |
10:30- 11:15 |
Building working class youth solidarity in China Gao Hang, (Department of Sociology, HKU) |
11:15 – 12:00 |
Clashing gender: Subject making of youth workers in vocational education. Xinmiao Song (Department of Sociology, HKU) |
12:00-12:45 |
Communicative labor in entrepreneurial activities: Examining interactions between grassroots innovative entrepreneurs and angel investors in Beijing. Yanan Guo, (Department of Sociology, HKU) |
12:45-13:30 |
Lunch |
13:30-14:15 |
Platform Labor, Algorithmic Control and Workers’ Struggle in the Gig Economy: A case study of Deliveroo drivers in Hong Kong. Lin Lin (Department of Sociology, HKU) |
14:15-15:00 |
Enabled Technology and Disabled Workers: Investigating the Employment of Workers with Disabilities in China, Dan Huang (Department of Sociology, HKU) & Chris Smith (School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London) |
15.00-15.15 |
Tea Break |
15.15-16.00 |
In search for worker subjectivity: Working in the Chinese Internet industry. |
16.00-16.45 |
Automation, Warehouse Work and Commodity Circulation. Di Zhang, (Department of Sociology, HKU), Yu Zheng & Chris Smith, Chris (Royal Holloway University of London) |
16.45-17.15 |
Wrap-up |
17.30 - onwards |
Evening Meal - Acquolina in Bocca, Egham |