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Infrastructural capitalism in China: Alibaba, its corporate culture and three infrastructural mechanisms.

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    • Subject Terms:
      CHINA
    • Abstract:
      Contrasting existing scholarship in 'socialism with Chinese characteristics', this article builds on the theorisation of infrastructural capitalism as an emerging global-capitalist project entangled with both China's state-socialist ideology and the latest nationalistic revitalisation agenda, serving both political and commercial goals, yet also rendering discontent and resistance in daily business and employment practices. Through participant observation across 13 Alibaba departments or subsidiaries, semi-structured interviews with workers in Alibaba and other Chinese platform companies, and the analysis of corporate documentation and media reports, our ethnographic study highlights the 'physical and digital (phygital)' nature of infrastructure, and theorises how discursive, symbolic, and sensorial techniques are adopted to direct and sustain infrastructural capitalism in daily organisational setting through three unique mechanisms: public-private partnerships, corporate prosumption networks (CPN) and imagineered global competition. This article's key contributions are threefold: to dissect the intertwined discursive, symbolic and affective mechanisms through which the 'invisible' infrastructures of capitalism are made 'visible' and 'sensible'; unpack the variegated impacts and inherent dilemmas of infrastructural capitalism; and reimagine the possibility of individual resistance and systemic transgression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
    • Abstract:
      Copyright of Global Media & China is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)