Dear colleagues,
I would like to draw your attention to a new book of a dear colleague of 
mine on transnational activism and global labor governance published by 
Palgrave.

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Transnational Activism, Global Labor Governance, and China
By Sabrina Zajak

About the book:

This book explores rising labor unrest in China as it integrates into 
the global political economy. The book highlights the tensions present 
between China’s efforts to internationalize and accept claims to respect 
freedom of association rights, and its continuing insistence on a 
restrictive, and often punitive, approach to worker organizations. The 
author examines how the global labor movement can support the 
improvement of working conditions in Chinese factories. The book 
presents a novel multi-level approach capturing how trade unions and 
labor rights NGOs have mobilized along different pathways while 
attempting to influence labor standards in Chinese supply chains since 
1989: within the ILO, within the European Union, leveraging global 
brands or directly supporting domestic labor rights NGOs. Based on 
extensive fieldwork in Europe, the US and China, the book shows that 
activists, by operating at multiple scales, were on some occasions able 
to support improvements over time. It also indicates how a politically 
and economically strong state such as China can affect transnational 
labor activism, by directly and indirectly undermining the opportunities 
that organized civil societies have to participate in the evolving 
global labor governance architecture.

Reviews:
“This innovative study aptly blends different but thus far disconnected 
bodies of literature to analyze the various pathways, including 
transnational political activism, to enhance labor rights in China. The 
book enriches our understanding of a complex and multi-layered system of 
interaction that leads to a slow and selective convergence between 
Chinese labor politics and international standards.” (Dieter Rucht, 
Professor Emeritus, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin and the Freie 
Universität Berlin, Germany)
“Social movement studies have often worked under the implicit assumption 
that protests only develops in democracy. This rich analysis of labour 
activism in China convincingly points instead at the multilevel dynamics 
that allow for new labour transnationalism. It shows how different 
actors build networks across places of production and consumption within 
the complex multilevel architecture of global labour.” (Donatella della 
Porta, Professor of Political Science, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy)
“Labor rights in China have been in the global spotlight for nearly 
three decades.  While most research focuses on a single great hope for 
improving workers’ rights, this book provides a valuable account of the 
multiple paths that global reformers have taken, from corporate social 
responsibility to diplomacy to the promotion of civil society.” (Tim 
Bartley, Associate Professor of Sociology, Ohio State University, USA)
“This is a theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded book. Sabrina 
Zajak offers a timely account on how multi-level actors interact with 
each other to shape labor rights in China. It makes substantial 
contributions to globalization, China and labor studies.” (Chris 
King-Chi Chan, Associate Professor of Sociology, City University of Hong 
Kong)

link http://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9781349950218


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Dr. Nicole Helmerich, Postdoctoral Researcher
Institut d'études politiques, historiques et internationales (Iephi)
Centre d'histoire internationale et d'études politiques de la 
mondialisation (Crhim)
Université de Lausanne, Géopolis 4147, CH - 1015 Lausanne – Switzerland
Tel.: + 41 21 692 37 78
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Esguerra, Alejandro, Helmerich, Nicole, and Risse, Thomas (eds.) (2017), 
Sustainability Politics and Limited Statehood. Contesting the New Modes 
of Governance (Palgrave Macmillan).

Hassel, Anke and Helmerich, Nicole (2016), 'Institutional change in 
transnational labour governance: implementing social standards in public 
procurement and export credit guarantees', in Yossi  Dahan, Hanna 
Lerner, and Faina Milman-Sivan (eds.), Global Justice and International 
Labour Rights (Cambridge u.a.: Cambridge University Press), 239-265.

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