Conflict and conciliation: industrial relations in an industrialising Hong Kong, ca. 1946-1960
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: This article focuses on a long-standing riddle: what explains the quiescence of Hong Kong workers? Building on a literature written by social historians, industrial relations experts and social scientists, and using qualitative and quantitative data created by governments, the article discusses the effects of the de-radicalization of the working class; acute macroeconomic instability; ‘paternalistic’ and discriminatory labour management strategies; and interventions by the colonial state in industrial relations – most notably voluntary conciliation. The article argues that Hong Kong’s dominant decentralised system of industrial relations was supported by a conciliation-based approach nurtured by the Labour Department of the colonial administration. It also notes similarities between Hong Kong’s conciliation-based approach and that which emerged in 1940s Britain. New evidence on the effectiveness of conciliation qualifies the hitherto dominant thesis that British colonial administrations in Asia repressed labor activism.
Source: Labor History
Author: David Clayton
Institution: University of York
Language: English
Topic: Labor Movements and Unions
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W3166376874