PUBLICATIONS
Book
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2021. Workers and Change in China: Resistance, Repression, Responsiveness (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Journal Articles
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.
Elfstrom, Manfred, and Yao Li. 2019. “Contentious Politics in China: Causes, Dynamics, and Consequences.” Brill Research Perspectives in Governance and Public Policy in China 4: 1-90.
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. 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. “The Urbanization of People: The Politics of Development, Labor Markets, and Schooling in the Chinese City by Eli Friedman.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review.
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2023. “China’s Informal Tools of Grassroots Control.” 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 and Blogs
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
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