Paper Short Abstract:

My paper deals with the socio-ecological consequences of the intertwined processes of electric transition and the growing international presence of Chinese firms in the automotive industry. It integrates the traditions of labor regime analysis, environmental labor studies and anthropology of labor.

Paper Abstract:

My paper deals with the socio-ecological consequences of the intertwined processes of electric transition and the growing international presence of Chinese firms in the automotive industry. I present the initial findings of an ethnographic study of the labor regime in the Hungarian automotive industry, with a focus on the city of Debrecen. Debrecen serves as a strategic point for studying these interlinked processes, facilitated by the Hungarian government's approach to compete for FDIs through the relaxation of labor standards and environmental regulations. The clustering of Chinese battery and electric vehicle producers in Debrecen has been accompanied by concerns about health, safety, and pollution, leading to locals’ protest against the factories. Simultaneously, the labor pool of the factories has been extended to include precarious university students and temporary workers from the Global South, reminiscing flexible ‘dormitory labor regimes’.

What new modes of organizing labor and ecology are emerging from these intertwined processes? My paper is based on ethnographic research in Debrecen, with a focus on two Chinese firms. My project integrates the traditions of labor regime analysis, environmental labor studies and anthropology of labor. I consider the broader labor regime formed around factories as multiscalar systems of labor control and regulation, which produce and reproduce workers and ecologies. This perspective allows me to connect the everyday experiences of workers to broader processes of capitalist reorganization, valorization, and racialization. Also, it enables an understanding of social reproduction and ecology as integrated components of the production process, broadening the scope of labor politics.