| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines the confrontation between ‘new urban migrants’ and native urbanites who labor as co-workers in urban China for the first time, and its corresponding influence over the self-organizing strategies of ‘new urban migrants’ on the service work floor in urban centers. Drawing on data from 51 semi-structured interviews and three-months of ethnographic research in a retail work setting, the author identifies three mechanisms that contribute to new urban migrants’ organizational strategies and boundary-drawing practices in the urban workplace in response to urban workers’ domination, which include: Laoxiang-based (i.e. fellow-villager-based) recruitment and training to monopolize occupational niches disdained by urban workers; strategically coordinating conflicts by major figures in the Laoxiang network; and offering materialistic favors to members sharing the same Laoxiang network.
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