3 Review(s)

This text examines both the demand and supply side of the social organization of industrial outwork in contemporary Hong Kong. Small manufacturers are struggling for survival in a changing global economic environment and outworking offers them flexibility for continuing labour-intensive production in the face of fierce competition. Outworking is also an important household work strategy for married working-class women. Through a sociological analysis of the interplay between employers' quest for production flexibility and married women's participation in outworking, this study illuminates the experience of East Asian development.