Yiran Zhang

Done with dumping my papers on Bluesky😆

The Paradox of Upgrading: Standards of Social Reproduction and the Gendered Precarization of Garment Work in China - Yiran Zhang, 2024 This article presents a comparative case study that traces the reconfiguration of production and social reproduction processes under China’s upgrading reform ac...

More on how the intensifying motherhood norm among migrant workers under China's upgrading reforms led to a gendered precarization of manufacturing work: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

You can access the paper here: cornellilj.org/2025/03/10/g...

Please let me know what you think!

Writing this paper makes me acutely aware of the rapidly changing norms regarding "work" in and beyond campus/academia that we are all going through. And how "work" is *always* a socially/legally constructed/contested concept.

Doctrinally, I examine how "employee" classification addresses this fundamental question of what constitutes a "work" relationship.
Sociologically, I analyze how the "work" claims both respond to and reinforce the commodification of supposedly non-market relationships.

To support this concept, I researched (hopefully) all NLRA and FLSA "employee" classification cases regarding students and work therapy programs--which have exploded since the 2010s. (huge thanks to
@mattbruenig.bsky.social 's NLRB Research Database)

"Workification" describes two overlapping phenomena: 1) (previously) non-market labor (e.g., student work) becomes "work" through employee classification adjudications; 2) the project of turning to work law to solve problems within non-market relationships

I am releasing my new paper-- Workification--into the world. It's forthcoming with UCLA Law Review and available on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

So honored to be part of this one-of-a-kind symposium issue on transnational labor rights!

The Paradox of Upgrading: Standards of Social Reproduction and the Gendered Precarization of Garment Work in China - Yiran Zhang, 2024 This article presents a comparative case study that traces the reconfiguration of production and social reproduction processes under China’s upgrading reform ac...

Great new article out from @yiranzhang.bsky.social on the linked reorganizations of garment production and social reproduction in contemporary China

Thank you😘

#AcademicSky #LawSky, let's get to know each other. Quote this & tell me: 1) a project you're working on, 2) an odd idea/theory you aren't working on but keep thinking about
1) The "workification" of students, rehabilitants, & nonmarket labor
2) What is the status of dogs in social reproduction?

SSRN link to the article: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

"To be sure, we all understand that domestic labor is undervalued, underpaid, and insufficiently protected. But what about domestic space? Specifically, what about domestic space that is no longer, or no longer only, domestic?"-- summarized this paper's motivation better than I could.

Thrilled that my forthcoming article, "Home as Non-workplace," was reviewed by Deepa Das Acevedo via
@jotwell.bsky.social work law: worklaw.jotwell.com/this-place-i....

Well, it's time to admit that I only open/create professional social media when I have something to share.

Not yet on Bluesky and already challenged...