Dying for an iPhone: The Hidden Struggle of China’s Workers

An in-depth study of the most powerful electronics contractor and the lives of its 1.4 million workers. During 2010, 18 workers attempted suicide at Taiwanese-owned Foxconn Technology Group's Chinese facilities, where Apple and other high profile branded products are produced and assembled. They ranged in age from 17 to 25 - the prime of youth. Fourteen died, while four survived with crippling injuries. What had driven the young Chinese workers to commit the desperate act? What light did they cast on China's much touted economic transformation in the era of export-oriented growth? The mystery that our investigation seeks to explore is not only the "inside story" of Foxconn; it is also the nature of global capitalism embodying with specific relationship between Foxconn and its buyers, the largest and richest being Apple, as well as that between Foxconn and the Chinese state. These are the relationships that shape conditions on the factory floor and ultimately workers' lives. An in-depth study of the most powerful electronics contractor and the lives of its 1.4 million workers enable us to draw out the deep contradictions among labor, capital, and the Chinese state in global IT production.

You can listen to Dying for an iPhone: The Hidden Struggle of China’s Workers online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Dying for an iPhone: The Hidden Struggle of China’s Workers is an episode from ICT for Development (ICT4D) by Oxford University.

This episode is 81:54 long.

This episode was published on Mar 26, 2015.

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