Involution

A first-hand account of the youth unemployment uprisings that swept China in 2022

Involution is the first book to present a detailed account of how the people coming of age in China’s post-miracle moment navigate job searches, exploitation, educational competition, and familial pressures. Using interviews with young people who participated in the 2022 protests against China’s extreme youth unemployment, this fascinating book shows how people in their early 20s struggle to survive while trying to maintain their dignity, sense of self, and agency amid economic crisis. Based on extensive research carried out in various cities across China, the Gonglao Collective presents a clear portrait of a new generation wracked by anxiety, ennui, and myriad social grievances.In the two short years since its emergence, Gonglao has become the single most important source of information and analysis about workers and labor strugglesin China. An informal network of young researchers and activists throughout China and inthe diaspora, they have depended on a committed core of volunteers to conduct research.Their website (工劳网) provides nearly daily updates on labor issues from around thecountry based on information gleaned from the internet.

Eli Friedman has a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and has beenon the faculty of the Industrial Labor Relations School since 2011. He is also the faculty advisor for the Cornell Labor Action Tracker, which is the only comprehensive database of strike events in the United States. His previous books include The Urbanization of People:The Politics of Development, Labor Markets, and Schooling in the Chinese City (Columbia 2022) and Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Postsocialist China (Cornell 2014). He also co-edited the English translation China on Strike: Narratives of Worker Resistance (Haymarket, 2016).