Power and Labor in Walmart China: Control Regimes

The text analyzes the power structure in Walmart China, depicting the store as a laboratory of diversified control regimes. The author distinguishes different forms of surveillance depending on the department: from the brutal materiality and panoptic surveillance in the fresh produce section to the algorithmic pace of cashiers' work. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of 'panoptic escape'—workers seeking camera blind spots to regain autonomy and satisfy basic physiological needs, such as eating. Work in the store is not homogeneous; it is a weave of micro-capitalisms where the worker's body becomes a tool for realizing value, and unofficial survival strategies and male solidarity constitute a form of resistance against neoliberal efficiency optimization.