ABSTRACT
The issue addressed in this paper is the current change in one of the basic social institutions in urban China, i.e. the socialist enterprise or work unit (danwei), and its impact on labour.
Since the 1950s, Chinese urban society has been based on work units. State enterprises have been conceived as all encompassing units, which were not confined to their economic targets. They had political, ideological, social and administrative obligations, e.g. they were expected to provide social security, housing and various facilities for their work force. Labour has been included into these units on a lifelong, non-contractual basis. Planning and administration were at the origin of a categorization of work units, jobs and workers. This gave rise to a differentiation and segmentation of the labour system. The work units produced a special type of labour inclusion for urbanites within the state socialist society.
