Suicides, excessive overtime, hostility and violence on the factory floor in China. Drawing on vivid testimonies from rural migrant workers, student interns, managers and trade union staff, Dying for an i Phone is a devastating expose of two of the world’s most powerful companies: Foxconn and Apple.
As the leading manufacturer of i Phones, i Pads and Kindles, and employing one million workers in China alone, Taiwanese-invested Foxconn’s drive to dominate global electronics manufacturing has aligned perfectly with China’s goal of becoming the world leader in technology. This book reveals the human cost of that ambition and what our demands for the newest and best technology mean for workers.
Foxconn workers have repeatedly demonstrated their power to strike at key nodes of transnational production, challenge management and the Chinese state, and confront global tech behemoths. Dying for an i Phone allows us to assess the impact of global capitalism’s deepening crisis on workers.
Spis treści
List of Tables and Figures
Preface
1. A Suicide Survivor
2. Foxconn: The World’s Largest Electronics Manufacturer
3. Apple Meets Foxconn
4. Managing Foxconn
5. Voices of Student Interns
6. Fire and Brimstone
7. Wandering the City
8. Chasing Dreams
9. Confronting Environmental Crisis
10. Dead Man Walking
11. Strikes and Protests
12. Apple, Foxconn, and the Lives of China’s Workers
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Our Book Website
Appendix 2: Suicides and Attempted Suicides
at Foxconn in China, 2010
Appendix 3: Fieldwork in China
Appendix 4: Foxconn Facilities around the World
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
O autorze
Pun Ngai is Professor of Sociology at The University of Hong Kong. She is author of Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace and Migrant Labor in China.