Books
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2021. Workers and Change in China: Resistance, Repression, Responsiveness (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Elfstrom, Manfred, and Yao Li. 2019. Contentious Politics in China: Causes, Dynamics, and Consequences (Brill Research Perspectives in Governance and Public Policy in China). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Journal Articles
Elfstrom, Manfred, and Xiaojun Li. Forthcoming. “Propaganda and Blame Attribution during Economic Downturns: Evidence from China.” Studies in Comparative International Development.
Clarke, Killian, and Manfred Elfstrom. 2022. “Power on the Margins: Lumpenproletarian Resistance in China and Egypt.” Comparative Politics 55(1):119-148.
Li, Yao, and Manfred Elfstrom. 2021. “Does Greater Coercive Capacity Increase Overt Repression? Evidence from China.” Journal of Contemporary China 30(128), 186–211.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2019. “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Chinese State Reactions to Labour Unrest.” China Quarterly 240: 855-879. (Winner of Gordon White Prize)
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2019. “A Tale of Two Deltas: Labour Politics in Jiangsu and Guangdong.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 57(2): 247–274.
Wang, Kan, and Manfred Elfstrom. 2017. “Worker Unrest and Institutional Change: Perceptions of Local Union Leaders in China.” China Information 31(1): 84-106.
Elfstrom, Manfred, and Sarosh Kuruvilla. 2014. “The Changing Nature of Labor Unrest in China.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 67(2): 453–80.
Chapters in Edited Volumes
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2022. “2018: The Jasic Struggle.” In Ivan Franceschini and Christian Sorace, eds., Proletarian China: A Century of Chinese Labour. New York: Verso Books.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2020. “Holding the Government’s Attention: State Sector Workers in China.” In Valerie Bunce, Karrie Koesel, and Jessica Chen Weiss, eds., Citizens & the State in Authoritarian Regimes: Comparing Russia & China. New York: Oxford University Press.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2019. “Labor Rights in China.” In Sarah Biddulph and Joshua Rosenzweig, eds., Handbook on Human Rights in China. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2019. “China’s Contentious Cab Drivers.” In Teresa Wright, ed., Handbook of Protest and Resistance in China. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Tapia, Maite, Manfred Elfstrom, and Denisse Roca-Servat. 2018. “Bridging Social Movement and Industrial Relations Theory: An Analysis of Worker Organizing Campaigns in the U.S. and China.” In Forrest Briscoe, Brayden King, and Jocelyn M. Leitzinger eds., Social Movements, Stakeholders, and Non-Market Strategy. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
Essays, Op-Eds, and Interviews
Elfstrom, Manfred, and Kevin Lin. 2025. “A Question of Strikes.” Asian Labour Review. Available at: https://labourreview.org/a-question-of-strikes/.
Elfstrom, Manfred, and Serhii Shlyapnikov. 2025. “China’s labour movement under fire: An interview with Manfred Elfstrom.” LINKS – International Journal of Socialist Renewal. Available at: https://links.org.au/chinas-labour-movement-under-fire-interview-manfred-elfstrom.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2022. “Today’s Protests in China Have Been Years in the Making.” Jacobin. Available at: https://jacobin.com/2022/12/protests-china-zero-covid-policy-free-speech.
Franceschini, Ivan, and Manfred Elfstrom. 2021. “Workers and Change in China: A Conversation with Manfred Elfstrom.” Made in China: A Quarterly on Chinese Labour, Civil Society, and Rights 5(3): 143-147.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2019. “Inside China: Xi’s Risky Power Play.” Democracy Journal 52: 40-48.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2019. “Can American and Chinese Workers Unite With a Trade War Looming?” The Daily Beast. Available at: https://www.thedailybeast.com/can-american-and-chinese-workers-unite-with-a-trade-war-looming.
Elfstrom, Manfred 2019. “China’s recent crackdown on labour activists may have little to do with their own actions.” South China Morning Post. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2185187/chinas-recent-crackdown-labour-activists-may.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2017. “Counting Contention.” Made in China: A Quarterly on Chinese Labour, Civil Society, and Rights 2(4): 16-19.
Book Reviews
Elfstrom, Manfred. Forthcoming. “Contesting Inequalities: Mediated Labor Activism and Rural Migrant Workers in China by Siyuan Yin.” China Quarterly.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2024. “Atomized Incorporation: Chinese Workers and the Aftermath of China’s Rise by Sungmin Rho.” China Quarterly 258: 569-571.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2023. “The Political Regulation Wave: A Case of How Local Incentives Systematically Shape Air Quality in China by Victoria Shiran Shen and Local Politics and Social Policy in China: Let Some Get Healthy First by Kerry E. Ratigan.” Perspectives on Politics 21(4): 1494-1496.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2023. “The (Re)Making of the Chinese Working Class: Labor Activism and Passivity in China by Elly Leung.” China Quarterly 253: 263-264.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2023. “The Urbanization of People: The Politics of Development, Labor Markets, and Schooling in the Chinese City by Eli Friedman.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 76(3): 614–615.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2023. “China’s Informal Tools of Grassroots Control” (Review of Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China by Lynette Ong) Asia Policy 18(1): 167–83.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2022. “China’s Contained Resource Curse: How Minerals Shape State–Capital–Labor Relations by Jing Vivian Zhang.” China Quarterly 251: 955-957.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2022. “Labor and the Contradictions of Law in China” (Review of Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers, and the State by Mary Gallagher). Law & Social Inquiry 47(1): 363-367.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2021. “Critical Dialogue – Welfare for Autocrats: How Social Assistance in China Cares for Its Rulers by Jennifer Pan.” Perspectives on Politics 19(4): 1277-1278.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2021 “Factory Politics in the People’s Republic of China edited by Joel Andreas.” Pacific Affairs 94(3): 588-590.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2021. “Dying for an iPhone: Apple, Foxconn, and the Lives of China’s Workers, by Jenny Chan, Mark Selden, and Pun Ngai.” The China Journal 86: 116-118.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2016. “Review of Police Reform in China by Kam C. Wong.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 21(2): 263-264.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2012. “Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change by Amanda Tattersall.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 65(4): 1000–1001.
Reports
Becker, Jeffrey, and Manfred Elfstrom. 2010. The Impact of China’s Labor Contract Law on Workers. Washington, D.C.: International Labor Rights Forum.
Other Media
I have appeared on the New Books Network, the Pekingology podcast, and the Sinica podcast. In addition, I have spoken about Chinese labor issues on Illinois Public Radio, WMNF 88.5 in Tampa, and Rising Up with Sonali, and I have been quoted by the South China Morning Post, CNN (here and here), VOA, Wall Street Journal, and Toronto Star. In a post at the China Policy Institute Blog, I discuss the growth of labor NGOs and trade union reforms in “the workshop of the world.” And I address the opportunities—and challenges—of data sets like China Strikes and of the spatial analysis of politics more generally in a piece in Dissertation Reviews.
My ORCID ID Number: orcid.org/0000-0002-5588-8778
Manfred Elfström 