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Worker-Intellectual Unity: Suicide, trans-border sociological intervention, and the Foxconn-Apple connection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

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Abstract

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What are the implications for global public sociology and labor studies when more than a score of Foxconn workers jump to their death and when a wave of protests, riots and strikes occur in their wake? This article documents the formation of a cross-border sociological intervention project and illustrates how sociological research fueled regional campaigns that gradually developed into a global campaign. This experience confirms the important political contribution that social science can make when linked with grassroots politics. The authors shed light on how social and economic injustice was creatively challenged by combining the strengths of workers, researchers and transnational movement activists. The study uses both quantitative (semi-structured questionnaires) and qualitative (in-depth interviews and participation observation) methods to gain insights concerning the experiences, world views and collective agency of Chinese workers who are struggling to make sense of the global production regime they inhabit and to contest the forces that shape their working and social lives.

Rsum

Rsum

Plus d'une vingtaine de travailleurs de Foxconn ont mis finleurs jours en sautant du haut de leur logement, entranant une vague de protestations, d'meutes et de grves. Quelles sont les implications de tels vnements pour la sociologie publique globale et les tudes sur les ressources humaines? Ce chapitre dcrit la cration d'un projet d'intervention sociologique transfrontalier et illustre comment la recherche sociologique a attis les campagnes rgionales et conduit progressivementleur transformation en une campagne mondiale. Cette exprience confirme le principe selon lequel la science sociale ne devrait jamais tre spare de la politique. Nous mettons galement en lumire comment l'injustice sociale et conomique a t mise au dfi d'une manire crative par une combinaison de la force des travailleurs, des chercheurs et des activistes d'un mouvement transnational. Nous utilisonsla fois des mthodes quantitatives (questionnaires semi-structurs) et qualitatives (entretiens en profondeur et observation de la participation) pour obtenir un aperu des expriences, des opinions mondiales et du systme d'organisation collective des travailleurs chinois, qui ont du maldonner sens au rgime de production mondiale dans lequel ils vivent et contestent les forces qui faonnent leurs vies professionnelle et sociale.

Resumen

Resumen

Cules son las implicancias para la sociologa pblica mundial y los estudios laborales cuando ms de una veintena de trabajadores de Foxconn salta hacia su muerte, dejando una ola de protestas, disturbios y huelgas a su paso? Este captulo documenta la formacin de un proyecto de intervencin sociolgica transfronteriza e ilustra cmo la investigacin sociolgica impuls las campaas regionales que se transformaron gradualmente en una campaa global. Esta experiencia confirma la premisa que las ciencias sociales nunca deben separarse de la poltica. Asimismo, aclaramos cmo se desafi con creatividad a la injusticia social y econmica al combinar las fuerzas de los trabajadores, los investigadores y los activistas de movimientos transnacionales. Empleamos mtodos cuantitativos (cuestionarios semi-estructurados) y cualitativos (entrevistas exhaustivas y observacin de la participacin) para obtener percepciones respecto de las experiencias, las visiones del mundo y la capacidad para actuar en forma colectiva de los trabajadores chinos, quienes luchan para encontrar el sentido al rgimen de produccin global en el que habitan y para responder a las fuerzas que dan forma a sus vidas laborales y sociales.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014

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