Tommy Wu
Biographic Data
| ID | 3841450 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tommy Wu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tommy |
| FAMILY NAME | Wu |
| SIGNATURE | WU T |
| AFFILIATIONS | McMaster University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8599-060X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Rethinking Platform Capitalism
The authors examine how platform companies structure labor control in the food-delivery sector by comparing two major apps operating in the United States and Canada: Uber Eats and Fantuan. Although existing research on algorithmic management emphasizes the emergence of “algorithmic despotism”—opaque, data-driven systems that shape worker behavior through surveillance, nudges, and individualized pay schemes—there is a need to map out the variation…
Impossible Politics
What is the significance of Chinese immigrants making hiphop YouTube videos to tell stories of their working lives in the US? This article examines three non-commercialized hip-hop videos made by Chinese immigrants to elucidate class, gender, and racial dynamics within the Chinese restaurant industry that are largely invisible to the public. These dynamics reveal many contradictions and ambiguities that do not fit neatly in normative American pol…
The Potential and Limits of Spontaneous Labor Activism on Social Media
Recent scholarship on social media in labor activism has centered on institutions such as labor unions. What is understudied is how “unorganized” workers use social media to reclaim agency. Employing digital ethnography this study explores the use of WeChat, an all-in-one Chinese mobile application, among Chinese restaurant workers to share stories of mistreatment and deteriorating work conditions in the United States. Tracing the development of …
Spatial Labour Control
This article contributes to understanding the relationship between mobilities and labour control. Focusing on the expansion of the Chinese/Asian restaurant industry in the United States during the last two decades and drawing from a multi-sited, multi-scalar ethnography, the concept of spatial labour control is employed to explicate the various forms of labour control and the mechanisms that contribute to the autogenous reproduction of the indust…
The Resentful Foreigner
The Resentful ForeignerRacializing Chinese Workers in Asian Fusion Restaurants Tommy Wu (bio) In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, anti-im/migrants rhetoric has again been elevated to the national stage. This heightened tension reflects deep anxieties of white residents over the increasing presence of "newcomers" in small-town America. In the last two decades, more and more Latino/a migrant workers have steered clear of traditional…
In Faint Praise of the World Bank's Gender Development Policy
1. The Standard Critique of Structural Adjustment Programmes Outside the field of economics, it is customary among social scientists to deride the World Bank for its neoliberalism. The standard argument is that the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) favoured by the bank in the 1980s and 1990s sought to impose free market conditions on the less developed countries. However, offering aid in exchange for more international trade, foreign invest…
In Faint Praise of the World Bank's Gender Development Policy
The Resentful Foreigner
The Resentful ForeignerRacializing Chinese Workers in Asian Fusion Restaurants Tommy Wu (bio) In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, anti-im/migrants rhetoric has again been elevated to the national stage. This heightened tension reflects deep anxieties of white residents over the increasing presence of "newcomers" in small-town America. In the last two decades, more and more Latino/a migrant workers have steered clear of traditional…
Spatial Labour Control
This article contributes to understanding the relationship between mobilities and labour control. Focusing on the expansion of the Chinese/Asian restaurant industry in the United States during the last two decades and drawing from a multi-sited, multi-scalar ethnography, the concept of spatial labour control is employed to explicate the various forms of labour control and the mechanisms that contribute to the autogenous reproduction of the indust…
In Faint Praise of the World Bank's Gender Development Policy
1. The Standard Critique of Structural Adjustment Programmes Outside the field of economics, it is customary among social scientists to deride the World Bank for its neoliberalism. The standard argument is that the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) favoured by the bank in the 1980s and 1990s sought to impose free market conditions on the less developed countries. However, offering aid in exchange for more international trade, foreign invest…
In Faint Praise of the World Bank's Gender Development Policy
The Resentful Foreigner
The Resentful ForeignerRacializing Chinese Workers in Asian Fusion Restaurants Tommy Wu (bio) In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, anti-im/migrants rhetoric has again been elevated to the national stage. This heightened tension reflects deep anxieties of white residents over the increasing presence of "newcomers" in small-town America. In the last two decades, more and more Latino/a migrant workers have steered clear of traditional…
The Potential and Limits of Spontaneous Labor Activism on Social Media
Recent scholarship on social media in labor activism has centered on institutions such as labor unions. What is understudied is how “unorganized” workers use social media to reclaim agency. Employing digital ethnography this study explores the use of WeChat, an all-in-one Chinese mobile application, among Chinese restaurant workers to share stories of mistreatment and deteriorating work conditions in the United States. Tracing the development of …
Spatial Labour Control
This article contributes to understanding the relationship between mobilities and labour control. Focusing on the expansion of the Chinese/Asian restaurant industry in the United States during the last two decades and drawing from a multi-sited, multi-scalar ethnography, the concept of spatial labour control is employed to explicate the various forms of labour control and the mechanisms that contribute to the autogenous reproduction of the indust…
Impossible Politics
What is the significance of Chinese immigrants making hiphop YouTube videos to tell stories of their working lives in the US? This article examines three non-commercialized hip-hop videos made by Chinese immigrants to elucidate class, gender, and racial dynamics within the Chinese restaurant industry that are largely invisible to the public. These dynamics reveal many contradictions and ambiguities that do not fit neatly in normative American pol…
Rethinking Platform Capitalism
The authors examine how platform companies structure labor control in the food-delivery sector by comparing two major apps operating in the United States and Canada: Uber Eats and Fantuan. Although existing research on algorithmic management emphasizes the emergence of “algorithmic despotism”—opaque, data-driven systems that shape worker behavior through surveillance, nudges, and individualized pay schemes—there is a need to map out the variation…
Political science (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Economics (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Politics (3 works) · Gender Studies (2 works) · Gender Studies (2 works) · Immigration (2 works)