scholarly journals Labour research under coercive authoritarianism: Comparative reflections on fieldwork challenges in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-155
Author(s):  
Daniel Fuchs ◽  
Patricia Fuk-Ying Tse ◽  
Xiaojun Feng

This article examines conditions for the conduct of qualitative research on labour and industrial relations in China since the shift to a coercive form of authoritarian governance in 2012. In comparing the experiences of three doctoral students from Europe, Hong Kong and mainland China respectively who conducted fieldwork in China between 2015 and 2017, the article argues that coercive authoritarianism has significantly increased the challenges of fieldwork, resulting in a need for inventive coping strategies. The study highlights a need to establish informal networks and reciprocal trust relationships, and points to the elevated importance of ethical considerations in fieldwork on labour and industrial relations in China.

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (19-20) ◽  
pp. 3710-3734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan ◽  
Lorraine Sheridan

Most studies of stalking are conducted with samples from individualist cultures. Little is known about the phenomenon within collectivist cultures. The present study is arguably the first stalking study conducted in Hong Kong. Specifically, this study investigates a large sample of Asian college students’ ( N = 2,496) perceptions of stalking behavior, potential reasons for stalking, and coping strategies that may be employed by stalking victims. Associations between these variables and gender and culture (Hong Kong vs. Mainland China) were also explored. Gender was more strongly associated with perceptions of stalking behavior than was culture. Gender was less strongly associated with perceptions concerning motivations for stalking and the effectiveness of coping strategies that may be employed by stalking victims than was culture. Effect sizes for all associations with culture were small, perhaps due to a high degree of similarity between the two cultures examined. The findings are generally supportive of similar results produced by previous work conducted within individualistic Western cultures, suggesting that stalking and the way that it is perceived may be universal in nature. This study concludes with the argument that legislation against stalking needs to be extended to non-Western countries, such as Hong Kong and Mainland China, as antistalking laws are relatively scarce outside Western industrialized countries.


Asian Survey ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 820-839
Author(s):  
Patrick Yeung
Keyword(s):  

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-34
Author(s):  
Shawna Malvini Redden

Invoking the styling of classic spy stories, this essay provides an account of a commercial aviation emergency landing that blew the agent/author's “cover” as a full participant ethnographer. Using an experimental autoethnographic format, the piece offers an evocative portrayal of a perceived near-death experience and its aftermath, as well as critical commentary on writing autoethnography with a fictionalized framing. In the closing “debrief,” the author sheds her agent persona to describe the process of writing about traumatic events and to analyze how those events focus attention on methodological and ethical considerations for qualitative research.


Author(s):  
Cécile Guillaume

Abstract Based on in-depth qualitative research conducted in one of the major French trade unions (the CFDT), this article explores to what extent and under what conditions trade unions adopt different legal practices to further their members’ interests. In particular, it investigates how ‘legal framing’ has taken an increasingly pervasive place in trade union work, in increasingly decentralised industrial relations contexts, such as France. This article therefore argues that the use of the law has become a multifaceted and embedded repertoire of action for the CFDT in its attempt to consolidate its institutional power through various strategies, including collective redress and the use of legal expertise in collective bargaining and representation work.


2020 ◽  
pp. 147332502097334
Author(s):  
Chinyere Y Eigege ◽  
Priscilla P Kennedy

This paper describes the reflections of two social work PhD students based on their personal and professional experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. The students describe their positionality and use that to expound on the impact of the pandemic on their lives. They reflect on the disruptions to their social work education and research priorities including transitioning to online learning and modifications to research agendas. They then discuss ongoing distractions such as worries about getting sick, mental health concerns, and financial constraints. They share their discoveries about glaring disparities in coronavirus infection and death rates, the need to adjust research agendas in response to current events, and the urgency for qualitative research strategies to add meaning to the numbers being reported. In addition, the authors describe shared experiences and intersections they discovered while writing this essay. Finally, recommendations for practice include recommitting to social work values to help surmount the ongoing waves of this pandemic; reimagining social work education so that disparities and injustice intersect with every subject taught and graduates become experts at leading social change; and harnessing the untapped potential of qualitative research to drive real, systemic change.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa J. Rothausen

As someone trained exclusively as a quantitative researcher, who recently became a semi-autodidactic qualitative researcher (see Rothausen, Henderson, Arnold, & Malshe, in press; “semi” in part because I am still learning and in part because my coauthors have taught me), I would like to extend the argument made by Pratt and Bonaccio (2016) for increasing qualitative research in the domains of industrial–organizational psychology (IOP), organizational behavior (OB), and human resources (HR), and I would also add industrial relations (IR), which was my doctoral field of study and “where workers went” within business and management studies as HR became more aligned with organizational interests (see Lefkowitz, 2016, from this journal). I extend their argument by deepening one of their reasons, understanding the “why” of work, and adding another potential use, understanding the “what could be” of work.


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