Reconstituting the neoliberal subjectivity of migrants

Christian theo-ethics and migrant workers in Shenzhen, China

Bibliographic Data

ID3609650
AuthorsQuan Gao (0000-0003-3565-172X, Newcastle University)
Year2021
Volume47
Issue12
Pages2725-2744
Publication date2021-09-10
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2020.1739374
OpenAlexW3015735008
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited37

This paper examines the connections between the neoliberal governance of migrants and Christian theo-ethics. Although regulating migrant labourers has been explored as one of the primary mechanisms of neoliberal governance, the 'actually existing' workings of this neoliberal migrant regime and in particular its everyday encounters with locally based ethical agents are relatively unexplored. On the one hand, I draw attention to how neoliberal subjectivities are materialised in the disciplinary migrant labour regime in Shenzhen, China. The reconciliation of neoliberalism and autocratic power has resulted in the hyper-exploitation of migrant workers. On the other hand, I explore how lived enactment of Christian theo-ethics in the everyday praxis of care and justice for marginalised migrant workers can open an ethical space that reconstitutes the subjectivities normalised by autocratic and neoliberal agendas. I argue that theo-ethics not only negotiates but also co-constitutes neoliberal governance by either ameliorating neoliberal subjectivity or drawing on neoliberal logics per se; regardless, it creates possibilities of more hopeful spaces and hybrid subjectivities

Autocracy · China · Corporate governance · Democracy · Economic Justice · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Praxis · Sociology · Subjectivity · Anthropological Studies and Insights · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Gender Studies · Law · Religion, Society, and Development

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