Movilidad laboral rural en el proceso de industrialización bajo tres dimensiones
| Autor | Cheng Li |
| Cargo | Candidato a Doctor de la Universidad Estatal de Campinas, Brasil. Investigador Centro Internacional para el Desarrollo del Trabajo Decente (ICDD), Universidad de Kassel |
| Páginas | 6-31 |
Latin American Journal of Trade Policy 6 (2020) – ISSN 079-9668 – Universidad de Chile
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Rural Labor Mobility in the Process of Industrialization under Triple
Dimensions: Time, Space, and People
Cheng Li*
Abstract
Rural-to-urban labor migration in developing economies, if beyond employment absorption
capacity, is both a symptom of underdevelopment and the factor that exacerbates
underdevelopment. Although various theories in development economics, in particular, the dual
economy, together with numerous migration literature, bore intention to explore a balanced
development approach in rural labor mobility, content-based studies are often overwhelmed,
whereas the context/circumstance-based angle (like industrialization) in the research of labor
mobility is always neglected. This paper reviews, under an ancient Chinese epistemological
methodology that consists of time, space, and people, labor mobnility theories. It combines the
old institutionalist and new structuralist schools of thought, searching a dynamic theoretical
framework to deconstruct the overarching labor mobility in the process of industrialization.
Keywords: Labor Mobility, Industrialization; Labor Absorption.
Resumen
La migración laboral de las áreas rurales a las urb anas en las economías en d esarrollo, si está más
allá de la capacidad de absorción del empleo, es tanto un síntoma de subdesarrollo como el factor
que exacerba el mismo. Aunque varias teorías en la economía del desarrollo, en particular la
economía dual, junto con numerosas publicaciones sobre migración, tenían la intención de explorar
un enfoque de desarrollo equilibrado para la movili dad laboral rural, los estudios basados en el
contenido a menudo están ex cedidos, mientras que el ángulo sobre el contexto/circunstancia
(como la industrialización) en la invest igación de la movilidad laboral siempre se descuida. Este
artículo revisa, bajo una antigua metodología epistemológica china que consiste en tiempo, espacio
y personas, las t eorías de la movilidad laboral. El artículo combina las viejas escuelas de
pensamiento institucionalistas y las nuevas escuelas estructuralistas, buscando un marco t eórico
dinámico para deconstruir la movilidad laboral general en el proceso de industrialización.
Palabras claves: Movilidad laboral, industrialización; Absorción Laboral.
* Ph.D. candidate of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), fellow of the International Center for Development
and Decent Work (ICDD), University of Kassel. Email: lichenglc5@hotmail.com. Received: January, 13th 2020;
accepted: April, 15th 2020.
Cheng Li
Rural Labor Mobility in the Process of Industrialization under Triple Dimen sions: Time, Space, and People
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Introduction
Substantial rural-to-urban labor mobility was kicked off along with the first industrial revolution and it
was highly determined by the general process of industrialization. To date, almost four centuries passed
and its history is too specific to be remember all the details, especially those seemingly “insignificant”.
To a great extent, if Marx is right that a country that is more industrially developed shows to the less
developed the image of its own future, then perhaps studying labor mobility of earlier industrialized
countries (EICs) will provide an appropriate analytical framework. Exactly as Breman (2016) underlined,
“the research promoted of developing countries from the early 1970s onwards is hampered by the virtual
lack of comparison with the profound restructuring from an agrarian-rural to an industrial-urban
workforce that went on in the western part of the world at an earlier stage”. This structural transformation
is what we mean by the context-based angles to the research of labor mobility, which contains the very
tempo-spatial-anthropological dimensions that deserve more theoretical exploration.
Prior to the industrial revolution, an overall economy was much dependent on agricultural production or
rural economy. However, ever since the industrial revolution took off, sectors, in particular industry and
merchandise rapidly developed. In reframing new sectoral compositions, dramatic changes lie. On the
one hand, in the flourishing industries that led massive job creation, while on the other hand, in applying
science and technology or through land reform that left more people as “surplus labor” for other sectors.
Thus, along with this process, almost all EICs in history were characterized by the massive transfer of
labor from agriculture to industry and service, as well as from rural to urban areas. However, this immense
process was based on a full-employment assumption, which is what we called “insignificant” details of
labor absorption. These details in such a transformation has always been neglected, or often taken for
granted as a simplistic “natural” result in many contemporary mainstream analysis of development
economics.
For many least developed countries (LDCs), more than half a century has passed since the end of WWII.
Regardless of who had managed to transfer their major population to urban areas, the vast majorities
(most in Africa and Asia) not only failed to be industrialized, but also remained underdeveloped.
According to the World Bank, this represents more than one third of population engaging in agricultural
activities and more than half of population living in rural areas. Even worse, nearly all LDCs at the same
time emerged deteriorating situations in urban areas, such as urban poverty, high unemployment,
slummification of cities, growth without employment, etc. As estimated, nowadays, one billion people
worldwide still live in various forms of slums, and the number is projected to double by 2030 (Davis,
2004). Among the majority, the population in slums are mainly concentrated in developing countries and
have increased from 689 million in 1990 to 880 million in 2014 (Habitat, 2007).
Comparing to the historical situation of EICs, three aspects of the Fisher-Clark hypothesis can be
provided (Clark, 1951; Fisher, 1945), which articulate inherent relations among economic growth,
industrial structures and labor transfer. In short, industrial structural process, labor mobility transition
and demographic transformations are summarized as follows. In terms of industrial structural process,
first, many EICs demonstrated rather a synchronous process of employment distribution, while the LDCs
manifested an asynchronous way. Generally, it takes centuries for most of EICs to reduce its employment
in agriculture, although the declining process speeded up ever since the industrial revolution (Allen, 2000;
Cai, Du, and Wang, 2003). But along with the process, it is found that the declining rate of rural
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