Guest
The spate of suicides during 2010 by young Foxconn workers aged between 17 and 25 threw a spotlight on the appalling working conditions endured by those creating the material devices on which the digital society depends. Jenny Chan investigates the lives of rural migrant workers and teenaged student interns at Taiwanese-owned Foxconn, the world’s largest maker of iPhones for Apple and other high profile buyers. Based on fieldwork in Guangdong and Sichuan provinces, Jenny Chan informs about the conditions of a new generation of Chinese workers and their collective actions to defend their rights and interests. She analyses labor struggles with regard to the intertwined policies and practices of Foxconn, international brands and buyers, and the local government. Jenny Chan works at the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to joining PolyU, she was a Lecturer of Sociology and Contemporary China Studies at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, a
