Event Overview
In this talk, Eileen Otis (Northeastern University) examines the labor politics underpinning global retail capitalism in China. Since the 1990s, merchant capital has eclipsed manufacturing as the dominant force in global supply chains, shifting economic power toward major retailers such as Walmart. As coordination and control moved to these retail giants, realization—the conversion of commodities into profit—emerged as a critical terrain of labor and management.
The talk introduces the concept of realization labor to capture the coordinated work that completes the commodity circuit, from stocking and scanning to maintaining order, crafting atmosphere, and performing brand identity. Drawing on ethnographic research in Walmart stores across China, Otis traces how U.S.-designed retail templates are reconfigured through local regulatory structures, state unions, and market diversity. The analysis reveals how realization labor—material, affective, and performative—mediates between global supply chains and local consumption practices, showing that profit ultimately depends on labor that renders goods legible, desirable, and transactable.
By situating realization at the heart of global capitalism, the talk expands our understanding of value creation, labor control, and the local reworking of global retail regimes.
About the Speaker
Eileen Otis is Associate Professor of Sociology and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Sociology at Northeaster University. She is the author of the award-winning book Markets and Bodies: Women, Service Work and the Making of Inequality in China. Her research has appeared in American Sociological Review, Politics & Society, Gender & Society, and The American Behavioral Scientist, among other journals. She is currently completing a book on Walmart retail workers in China.