The Politics of Quality in the Global Economy

The notion of “quality” (suzhi) has become a cultural determination of the value form of labor in China’s economic reforms, marking the divide between material and immaterial labor. As a specifically Chinese articulation of the concept of human capital, suzhi must be understood within the frame of the global economy. In addition, an accounting of its cultural formation in the Chinese context offers a critical perspective on new conceptions of value circulating more globally.