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<p>This study theorizes ironic compliance as a relationally embedded form of moral disengagement that facilitates forced labor through the symbolic commodification of offline rights. Drawing on ethnographic data from China’s finance and technology sectors, we identify three mechanisms: (1) temporal negotiation, where digital connectivity erodes work-life boundaries; (2) symbolic subversion, where ironic compliance blends resistance with complicity; and (3) emotional leverage, in which exhaustion is converted into organizational capital. Challenging models that emphasize overt coercion, we adopt a moral economy framework to show how culturally legitimate, digitally mediated practices normalize structural exploitation. We argue that when regulatory safeguards are disembedded from workers’ relational contexts, they may paradoxically intensify coercion under the guise of ethical governance. Our findings contribute to business ethics by reframing forced labor as ideologically sustained consent and by calling for policy interventions that address the symbolic dimensions of digital compliance.</p>

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Navigating the Invisible: Ironic Compliance, Forced Labor, and the Commodification of Offline Rights in Digitalized Workplaces

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年6月25日

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  • Yujie Zhang,
  • Qian Zhang

摘要

This study theorizes ironic compliance as a relationally embedded form of moral disengagement that facilitates forced labor through the symbolic commodification of offline rights. Drawing on ethnographic data from China’s finance and technology sectors, we identify three mechanisms: (1) temporal negotiation, where digital connectivity erodes work-life boundaries; (2) symbolic subversion, where ironic compliance blends resistance with complicity; and (3) emotional leverage, in which exhaustion is converted into organizational capital. Challenging models that emphasize overt coercion, we adopt a moral economy framework to show how culturally legitimate, digitally mediated practices normalize structural exploitation. We argue that when regulatory safeguards are disembedded from workers’ relational contexts, they may paradoxically intensify coercion under the guise of ethical governance. Our findings contribute to business ethics by reframing forced labor as ideologically sustained consent and by calling for policy interventions that address the symbolic dimensions of digital compliance.