Manufacturing compromise: a study of gendered labour processes at a Chinese nickel refinery in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

A general perception exists about Chinese import labour practices, and gender ideas carried out at home, and that these practices and beliefs conflict with the values harboured by the communities and workers in Papua New Guinea (PNG). I argue in this thesis that both parties (Chinese and Papua New Guinean employees) learn to compromise and adjust to collaborate, upholding, in particular, the values and regulations developed during the Australian administration. Additionally, because most local employees are half subsistence farmers and half workers, indigenous cultural values continue to influence Papua New Guinean employees' understandings of work and modify Chinese management's behaviour. Due to the unfamiliarity with local culture and mining regulations, the Mandarin Chinese compound term mohe ('friction and cooperation') encapsulates the different stages of work relations in this ethnic enclave where the Chinese and PNG states are absently present. In the process of learning to work together, Papua New Guinean and Chinese employees' experiences as refinery workers are results of how they negotiated with past understandings and conceded to new work situations. Because of their intercultural work experiences, refinery employees' reconfigurations of gender identities, including masculinities, are also impacted by the compromises they make throughout their employment.