Resistance through Accommodation: A Citizenship Approach to Migrant Worker NGOs in China

Jakimów, Małgorzata

doi:10.1080/10670564.2017.1337316

Resistance through Accommodation: A Citizenship Approach to Migrant Worker NGOs in China

Jakimów, Małgorzata

Authors

Dr Malgorzata Jakimow m.j.jakimow@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor

Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork among migrant worker NGOs conducted between 2011 and 2016, this article employs critical theories of citizenship to illustrate how migrant worker NGOs use a strategy of ‘resistance through accommodation’ to re-shape the citizenship regime and discourse in China. The dominant literature on labour activism tends to discount the potential for migrant worker NGOs to undertake resistance, on account of their dependency upon the state and the market. The article contends that while NGOs must engage in relations with the state and the market to ensure their own survival, their activism does not ultimately centre on either resisting or accommodating these actors directly, but rather upon a broader engagement process aimed at the strategic purpose of ‘citizenship transformation’.

Citation

Jakimów, M. (2017). Resistance through Accommodation: A Citizenship Approach to Migrant Worker NGOs in China. Journal of Contemporary China, 26(108), 915-930. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2017.1337316

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Dec 15, 2016
Online Publication Date	Jun 15, 2017
Publication Date	Nov 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Sep 10, 2018
Publicly Available Date	Sep 10, 2018
Journal	Journal of Contemporary China
Print ISSN	1067-0564
Electronic ISSN	1469-9400
Publisher	Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	26
Issue	108
Pages	915-930
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2017.1337316
Related Public URLs	http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/112015/

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Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.