Labour Rights and Beyond—How Migrant Worker NGOs Negotiate Urban Spaces in the Pearl River Delta

Abstract The Pearl River Delta (PRD) with its strong focus on international export production has a higher concentration of NGOs that support migrant workers than any other part of China. To better understand mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion affecting migrants in the city and their organisations, this paper takes up Martina Löw's (2008) space‐theoretical concept and her critical reference to Anthony Giddens' structuration theory showing how space can be interpreted as a duality of structural ordering and action elements. It asks whether these migrant worker NGOs can be seen as agents of change influencing the process of urban restructuring in the PRD and producing new urban spaces while negotiating with numerous different institutions on behalf of the workers. Based on a critical review of the literature, long‐term participatory observation and expert interviews with NGO leaders and staff, it uses four examples—NGO office space, factory space, litigation space and hospital space—to argue that these NGOs are producing transient urban spaces that not only advocate labour rights but also serve broader processes of creating and transforming the mega‐urban landscape of the PRD. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.