Dear MECCSA Subscribers,
A new publication from University of Illinois Press
Free postage to UK customers
http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/goodbye-islave
Goodbye iSlave
A Manifesto for Digital Abolition
Jack Linchuan Qiu
"This remarkable dissection of twenty-first century global iSlavery, rooted in Qiu's on-the-ground and comparative historical research,
gives a high-voltage jolt to complacent iCitizens--and examples of what to do next."--John D.H. Downing, editor of the
Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media
"Qiu's grim and eloquent book traces parallels between the digital economy and Atlantic slavery--from Congo mines to Foxconn sweatshops to iPhone users' labor. Full of insights,
Goodbye iSlave also offers hope, in new forms of social struggle."--Raewyn Connell, author of
Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science
Welcome to a brave new world of capitalism propelled by high tech, guarded by enterprising authority, and carried forward by millions of laborers being robbed of their souls. Gathered
into mammoth factory complexes and terrified into obedience, these workers feed the world's addiction to iPhones and other commodities--a generation of iSlaves trapped in a global economic system that relies upon and studiously ignores their oppression.
Focusing on the alliance between Apple and the notorious Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn, Jack Linchuan Qiu examines how corporations and governments everywhere collude to build systems of domination, exploitation, and alienation. His interviews, news analysis,
and first-hand observation show the circumstances faced by Foxconn workers--circumstances with vivid parallels in the Atlantic slave trade. Qiu also shows how the fanatic consumption of digital media also creates compulsive free labor that constitutes a form
of bondage for the user. Arguing as a digital abolitionist, Qiu draws inspiration from transborder activist groups and forms of grassroots resistance to make a passionate plea aimed at uniting--and liberating--the forgotten workers who make our twenty-first-century
lives possible.
Jack Linchuan Qiu is a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is
the author of Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China.
University of Illinois Press | Geopolitics of Information | February 2017 | 248pp | 9780252082122 | PB | £20.99*
20% discount with this code: CSL17ISLA**
*Price subject to change.
**Offer excludes the USA, South America and Australia.
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