Wong, Hung (1999) Marginal is critical : a comparative study of marginal workers in Britain and Hong Kong. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study explores the rise of marginal workers in Britain and Hong Kong after the Second World War and argues that marginal workers are not minor, unimportant, powerless and transient elements of capitalist development. Marginal workers, however, are important and indispensable to the development of capitalism in both regions. The work and life histories of marginal workers in Britain and Hong Kong show that gender and ethnic inequalities are articulated through and intensified by class inequality. The overlapping of these inequalities creates different subgroups of marginal workers.

The marginalisation of labour is the process of the identification and separation of marginal groups from mainstream society. With assistance from the state, capital has been able to increase its exploitation of and control over labour through intensified gender, ethnic, occupational and international divisions of labour.

This thesis argues that marginal is critical. A marginal class location induces a marginal class consciousness, which is a counter, non-conforming and cynical attitude towards oppression and exploitation. Nonetheless, while the consciousness of British marginal workers is more aggressive, radical and well shaped, that of marginal workers in Hong Kong is more self-defensive, conservative and amorphous. This thesis suggests that these different patterns of marginal consciousness are a product of their distinctive class formation process: marginal workers in Britain have undergone a 'sedimentary' class formation, their counterparts in Hong Kong have undergone a 'disrupted' class formation.

The 'sedimentary class formation' of marginal workers in Britain is structured by its marginal trap of downward mobility and low geographical mobility at the macro level, alongside active shop-floor struggle and strong trade unionism at the macro level. The 'disrupted class formation' of marginal workers in Hong Kong is caused by its permeable class structure and covert class struggle, alongside the lack of shop-floor trade union organisers and experience of struggle.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Employees -- Great Britain, Employees -- Hong Kong
Official Date:	1999
Dates:	Date Event 1999 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Cohen, Robin, 1944-
Extent:	x, 405 leaves
Language:	eng

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