Foxconn Fatalities: Technology and Commodified Human Labor

By Cynthia Oyarce

 Technology is developing rapidly in the 21st century and appears to show no signs of slowing down. Although tech production, research, and maintenance are depicted as clean, elegant processes handled by well-paid and educated professionals, this is quite far from the truth. Who ends up paying the price? According to Ricarda Hammer and Tina Park, technological development makes use of preexisting pathways of oppression laid down by historical colonialism, racism, and capitalism. 

Using a Duboisian sociological structure, Hammer and Park argue that a combination of capitalistic exploitation, previous colonization, and racialized domination go hand in hand with the commodification of humans who are seen as "lesser than". For instance, the idea of the veil plays into the colonial view of colonized individuals as mere sources of labor and capital. In many industries, including technology, the "global operation of the veil created and maintained a situation where, as Du Bois remarks, the colonizer is guilty and yet, no individual can be held accountable" (Hammer and Park 2021:230). In other words, so long as people are able to turn a blind eye to the laborers required to churn out so much tech, no one will be considered culpable and we can go on living comfortably. 

                

As mentioned by Hammer and Park, one of the most obvious displays of poor working conditions came in 2010 with the alarming amount of suicides committed by Foxconn employees in China. Safety nets were installed around worker dormitories to dissuade further jumping, providing a clear visualization of the dehumanizing conditions many technological laborers face (not to mention, the mere idea of having to live and work in the same place is terrible in itself). Much like DuBois' veil, however, the focus on the nets also drew attention away from the company's other responses, including their decision to have workers sign waivers clearing Foxconn of any liability from any additional suicides. 

Works Referenced

Hammer, R. and Park, T., 2021. "The Ghost in the Algorithm: Racial Colonial Capitalism and the Digital Age." Political Power and Social Theory, 38, 221–249.

Getty Images. "Here’s What Workers of the Global South Endure to Create Corporate Wealth." Truthout, 5 January 2020, https://truthout.org/articles/heres-what-workers-of-the-global-south-endure-to-create-corporate-wealth/