Title: Brokering Capitalism in Maoist China
Speaker: Dr. Adam Frost (Copenhagen Business School)
Date/Time: February 14, 2025 (Fri) 21:00-22:00 HKT (Feb 14, 2025 | 14:00-15:00 CET)
Venue: Via Zoom
Language: English
Enquiry:ihss@hku.hk
Abstract
This talk examines the persistent of capitalistic organization in Maoist China through the lens of informal labor brokering. Drawing on internal government reports and the criminal case files of labor brokers, I reconstruct the clandestine networks that were built to recruit, manage, and deploy undocumented labor in the socialist economy. In the face of repressive state institutions, labor brokers developed sophisticated strategies– forging documents, bribing officials, and leveraging personal networks– to move labor across administrative boundaries, linking underemployed workers with understaffed informal and formal enterprises. In doing so, they effectively fostered the emergence of a shadow labor market that reduced transaction costs and provided flexibility absent in the rigid formal system. Ultimately, I argue, informal labor brokering not only created new income generation opportunities and ameliorated inefficiencies in the formal economy, but profoundly reshaped the nature of work and labor relations in Maoist China. This research illuminates the power of informal actors to shape markets even under significant constraint, challenging conventional narratives about state control in Maoist China and revealing the resilience of informal organization.
About the Speaker
Adam K. Frost is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Business Humanities and Law at Copenhagen Business School. In his research he combines qualitative and computational approaches to explore the history of entrepreneurship and organization in China. His work has examined, among other topics, urban inclusivity and the entrepreneurial production of space, the social mediation of technology diffusion, and the impact of informal organization on development.
About the Webinar Series
This monthly webinar series features the newest research on the history of Chinese business and entrepreneurship. If you have any questions about this webinar series, would be interested in giving a talk, or would like to be removed from this mailing list, please contact Professor John D. Wong (jdwong@hku.hk) or Professor Ghassan Moazzin (gmoazzin@hku.hk).