by Cleiton Maciel Brito (Author)
China and Globalization in the Amazon examines Chinese investment in the Global South, with particular attention to industrial activity in Latin America. Based on ethnographic work conducted in several Chinese factories in the Amazon region of Brazil, whether private, partially private, or state-owned, it explores the impact of these factories on the lives of workers, specifically on wages, laws, and labor benefits, as well as the relationship between management and workers. Drawing on interviews with Brazilian workers, expatriate Chinese workers, union leaders, and factory managers, the author identifies a Chinese production model and sheds light on the implementation of externally defined work regimes that showed little engagement with the workforce in the region, together with practices that resulted in a technical or bureaucratic relationship with the worker, and the emergence of lower wages than the local average, as well as few concessions on labor benefits. A study of Chinese globalization and industrial expansion in the developing world, and the reactions of workers to the Chinese model of management, this volume will be of interest to scholars of the sociology of work and organizations, globalization, development studies, and politics.
Author Biography
Cleiton Maciel Brito is Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the Federal University of Grande Dourados. He was born in Manacapuru, a small town in the state of Amazonas. He earned his PhD in Sociology from the Federal University of São Carlos. He received an award for his thesis from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), an agency of the Federal Government of Brazil. He has published several articles and book chapters on globalization, the China-Brazil relationship, and Amazonian studies.