Dying for an iPhone - by Jenny Chan & Mark Selden & Ngai Pun (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A harrowing look lives and struggles of a new generation of Chinese workers confronting the Apple-Foxconn empire and the Chinese state."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A harrowing look lives and struggles of a new generation of Chinese workers confronting the Apple-Foxconn empire and the Chinese state.

Review Quotes

"Sociologists Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai . . . offer both a business school analysis of the Apple/Foxconn symbiosis and a heart-rending story of the lived experience of the young men and women brutalized by life at the bottom of this enormous transpacific supply chain." -New Labor Forum

"Dying for an iPhone is an excellent book and fills an important gap in the literature. It would make a great gift this year, especially for someone who is expecting a new iPhone." --New Politics

"Dying for an iPhone is rigorously researched, the culmination of the authors' near decade-long project.... The authors conducted interviews with workers, managers, officials, labour rights activists and others, and supported and cross-referenced the information they gleaned from these meetings with innumerable other documents.... The book is a brilliant addition to labour studies, and evidence of how good academic writing can be. It should be read by all." --British Journal of Industrial Relations

"With the potential relocation of factories, terrible working conditions and workers' struggles against them will only be replicated elsewhere. I echo the authors' call for "transnational activism in opposition to the oppression of labor wherever it is found." --Elaine Lu, Labor Notes

"Putting aside the title's glib pun -- a reference to the suicides of some factory workers in China who make Apple products -- this book is a thorough overview of an important topic. Despite best efforts to "decouple" tech supply chains between US firms and Chinese factories, our iPhones and other gadgets are still largely made in China, and we have a responsibility to know their human and environmental, as well as pecuniary, price. This exposéeacute; -- dramatically written, but chock full of statistics -- chronicles the deaths, unpaid overtime, and other abuses of factories, with a special focus on Apple partner Foxconn. Drawing on interviews with both workers and managers, it will make you look twice at your phone." --Alec Ash, The Wire China

"Dying for an iPhone powerfully shows that international attention and consumer awareness are not enough momentum for systemic change. The solution lies in empowering workers themselves to participate at the factory level. Indeed, international solidarity is more important than ever to support workers in finding representation to hold responsible parties accountable." --Geoffrey Crothall, China Labour Bulletin

"While the book tells the story of the strategic exploitation of a million-strong workforce, at its heart are the individual struggles of the workers themselves, conveyed in their lyrics, poetry and statements. 'Each screw turns diligently / but they can't turn around our future, ' writes one. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, has said that his mission, and that of the company, is 'to serve humanity'; Dying for an iPhone calls into question that aim and the ethics of our globalized economy as a whole." --Emily Kenway, The Times Literary Supplement

"Dying for an iPhone is deeply researched, comprehensively annotated and fuelled by anger." --Mike Cormack, South China Morning Post

"Dying for an iPhone, by sociologists Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai, tackles head-on the unsavoury practices associated in the Chinese factories that produce Apple