Variegated Work Regimes: A Comparative Analysis Of Chinese Companies In Ethiopia

Abstract

The dissertation investigates the variegated work regimes in multiple sectors of Chinese investment in Ethiopia. The bourgeoning literature on Africa-China relations has contributed both policy-level analyses of China’s strategic agenda in Africa and field-based studies on everyday Chinese practices in specific African countries. However, scholars have yet to unpack the nexus of state, firms, and employees that collectively shape the micro-power geometries in Chinese workplaces in Africa. To address this gap, comparative case studies were conducted with three Chinese companies in construction, telecommunication, and auto assembly, respectively, as well as a group of manufacturers in the Chinese Eastern Industrial Zone, to uncover the everyday geographies of Chinese capital and labor engagements in Ethiopia. The dissertation problematizes the stereotypical groupings of Chinese investments into state and private capitals by identifying the complex contractual, competitive, and complementary networks developed among Chinese firms – implied by their varied capacities and constraints – to engage in transnational production. It also examines the promising and challenging elements of employee agency and the effectiveness of government intervention. Rather than presuming a nationality-based management structure in Chinese companies, the dissertation argues that power is articulated along multiple lines of social locations and economic positions, resulting in empowerment and marginalization for both Chinese and Ethiopian employees. It thus adds to the efforts of “situating agency” by explicating how Chinese and Ethiopians navigate multiple circumstances for their own economic and professional benefit through work. By revealing how states, firms, places and individuals are mobilized to pursue diverse and highly flexible globalization trajectories, the dissertation contributes to a comparative-relational understanding of the everyday politics of work-life encounters under shifting global power dynamics of South-South cooperation.