Yu Huang | Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (original) (raw)
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Papers by Yu Huang
China became the world's largest market for industrial robots in 2013. The robotic revolution gai... more China became the world's largest market for industrial robots in 2013. The robotic revolution gained pace and occurred after the 2008 financial crisis as many export-oriented firms coped with dwindling orders, rising labour costs and growing concerns over occupational safety. Unlike workers in the Global North who experienced automation in the 1960s and 1970s against a backdrop of strong union activism, whether semi-proletarian peasant-workers in China ultimately enjoy the 'beneficial' effects of industrial upgrading is questionable. However, very little social science research has investigated how automation, in light of the negative consequences of unemployment and deskilling, can continue to be advanced. Drawing on Beverley Silver's concept of workers' power, this article explores how workers' marketplace and workplace bargaining
China is the world's largest aquaculture producer, accounting for 63% of global output by volume.... more China is the world's largest aquaculture producer, accounting for 63% of global output by volume. However, since the 2000s, the reputation of China's seafood has been tainted by a series of drug residue incidents. The need to ensure food safety, combined with the state's determination to fulfill its responsibility for animal epidemic control in the aftermath of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian flu, forced the government to launch a veterinary system reform. This reform sought to transform quasi-public rural vets into market-sensitive and technology-savvy licensed professionals who can discipline unruly fish farmers. However, the vets encountered many dilemmas in balancing food safety versus drug profits, animal health versus human health, and regulatory imperatives versus the practical exigencies of farmers themselves. The article demonstrates how the neoliberal program of cultivating rational and responsible veterinarians redistributes rather than minimizes the risks that result from market-oriented aquaculture production.
The low rate of full-time agricultural employment in China has tempted scholars tobelieve that ca... more The low rate of full-time agricultural employment in China has tempted scholars tobelieve that capitalization does not necessarily lead to the trenchant effects of proletarianization.
In this paper, I refute this hypothesis by showing agri-capital’s move from ‘formal subsumption’ to ‘real subsumption’ in shrimp aquaculture. Previously, due to natural and social barriers, capital had squeezed farmers’ value by monopolizing the upstream and downstream sectors of the commodity chain. However, in recent years, after several disease outbreaks that have forced family farmers to abandon their business, agri-capital has finally accomplished ‘real subsumption’ by penetrating into the farming process. Following the rise of a nascent shrimp production base in Leizhou, Guangdong Province, I explore how it accomplishes land transfer, technological control and labour supervision to outcompete
family farms by capturing the high price of off-season farming. This analysis helps us to understand the dynamics of class formation and the trajectory of proletarianization.
China became the world's largest market for industrial robots in 2013. The robotic revolution gai... more China became the world's largest market for industrial robots in 2013. The robotic revolution gained pace and occurred after the 2008 financial crisis as many export-oriented firms coped with dwindling orders, rising labour costs and growing concerns over occupational safety. Unlike workers in the Global North who experienced automation in the 1960s and 1970s against a backdrop of strong union activism, whether semi-proletarian peasant-workers in China ultimately enjoy the 'beneficial' effects of industrial upgrading is questionable. However, very little social science research has investigated how automation, in light of the negative consequences of unemployment and deskilling, can continue to be advanced. Drawing on Beverley Silver's concept of workers' power, this article explores how workers' marketplace and workplace bargaining
China is the world's largest aquaculture producer, accounting for 63% of global output by volume.... more China is the world's largest aquaculture producer, accounting for 63% of global output by volume. However, since the 2000s, the reputation of China's seafood has been tainted by a series of drug residue incidents. The need to ensure food safety, combined with the state's determination to fulfill its responsibility for animal epidemic control in the aftermath of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian flu, forced the government to launch a veterinary system reform. This reform sought to transform quasi-public rural vets into market-sensitive and technology-savvy licensed professionals who can discipline unruly fish farmers. However, the vets encountered many dilemmas in balancing food safety versus drug profits, animal health versus human health, and regulatory imperatives versus the practical exigencies of farmers themselves. The article demonstrates how the neoliberal program of cultivating rational and responsible veterinarians redistributes rather than minimizes the risks that result from market-oriented aquaculture production.
The low rate of full-time agricultural employment in China has tempted scholars tobelieve that ca... more The low rate of full-time agricultural employment in China has tempted scholars tobelieve that capitalization does not necessarily lead to the trenchant effects of proletarianization.
In this paper, I refute this hypothesis by showing agri-capital’s move from ‘formal subsumption’ to ‘real subsumption’ in shrimp aquaculture. Previously, due to natural and social barriers, capital had squeezed farmers’ value by monopolizing the upstream and downstream sectors of the commodity chain. However, in recent years, after several disease outbreaks that have forced family farmers to abandon their business, agri-capital has finally accomplished ‘real subsumption’ by penetrating into the farming process. Following the rise of a nascent shrimp production base in Leizhou, Guangdong Province, I explore how it accomplishes land transfer, technological control and labour supervision to outcompete
family farms by capturing the high price of off-season farming. This analysis helps us to understand the dynamics of class formation and the trajectory of proletarianization.