Soziologie

A new journal article by Yueran Tian and Ngoc Luong titled ‘Diffused dormitory labour regimes in China and Vietnam: housing transformations and labour control through social reproduction’ has been published in Work in the Global Economy. A post-peer-review, pre-copy-edited version of the article is available here. The definitive publisher-authenticated version can be found at this link.

Abstract:

Since the 1990s, China and Vietnam have become central nodes in global electronics manufacturing, relying heavily on migrant workers recruited from rural regions. Under export-oriented industrialization and household registration systems (hukou in China and hộ khẩu in Vietnam), migrant workers’ labour maintenance and labour renewal have been spatially separated: everyday reproduction was partially subsidized by factory dormitories, while rural land and minimal village welfare sustained family reproduction. This configuration underpinned what scholars term the dormitory labour regime (DLR), through which factories extended control beyond the shop floor into workers’ daily lives. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork (2020–21) in major electronics factories in both countries, this article identifies an emergent transformation: the diffused dormitory labour regime. As industries relocate inland and state-led urbanization accelerates, land expropriation and commuterization reduce the distance between home and workplace while undermining the welfare function of rural land. Workers increasingly commute daily and assume greater responsibility for housing, childcare, and especially education. Rather than eliminating control, this shift reconfigures it. Echoing Michael Burawoy’s notion of hegemonic despotism, we show how consent is structured through labour market insecurity, subcontracting, performance-based remuneration, and thin welfare provision. Control operates less through overt coercion than through self-responsibilization, binding workers to wage labour in both productive and reproductive spheres. By linking labour-process analysis to household reproduction, we argue that the diffused dormitory labour regime secures workers’ compliance and encourages market dependency not only on a daily basis but across generations.

Reference:

Tian, Y., & Luong, N. (2026). Diffused dormitory labour regimes in China and Vietnam: housing transformations and labour control through social reproduction. Work in the Global Economy (published online ahead of print 2026). https://doi.org/10.1332/27324176Y2026D000000063