Contesting Inequalities: Mediated Labor Activism and Rural Migrant Workers in China

After four decades of market reform, China has developed a fast-growing, prosperous economy—the second largest in the world. Despite this prosperity, social inequality has persisted and expanded, particularly among rural migrant workers, and oppressive labor conditions have given rise to an increase in worker protests. In China's authoritarian political context, worker strikes often face suppression and receive little attention in mainstream media, which has led burgeoning forms of alternat...