This seminal study explores the significant changes in the global IT industry as production has shifted from the developed world to massive sites in the developing world that house hundreds of thousands of workers in appalling low-wage conditions to minimize labor costs. Yet little is known about this phenomenon as the major contract manufacturers deliberately hide their names from the public on behalf of brand-name customers such as Apple. In short, the authors argue, globalization is not always helping the IT workers of the world, many of whom are working in unbearable factory conditions. From Silicon Valley to Shenzhen traces the development of the new networks of globalized mass production in the IT industry and the reorganization of work since the 1990s, capturing the systemic nature of an industry-wide restructuring of production and work in the global context. Their wide-ranging and detailed analysis makes an important contribution to ongoing academic and political debates on the globalization of production, especially by taking these debates beyond narrow perspectives of determining criteria of "success" for participation in global production networks. Rather, they emphasize the changing nature of work, employment relations, and labor policies and their implications for the possibilities of sustainable economic and social development.

By Boy Lüthje; Stefanie Hürtgen; Peter Pawlicki and Martina Sproll

Introduction
Chapter 1: Bringing the Labor Process Back In: Global Production Networks and Work
Chapter 2: Beyond the New Economy: The Global Restructuring of Production Models in the IT Industry
Chapter 3: Reshaping the International Division of Labor: Global Production Networks in Electronics Contract Manufacturing
Chapter 4: Global Taylorism?: Work and Politics of Production in Low-Cost Locations
Chapter 5: From Silicon Valley to Shenzhen: Network-Based Mass Production, Industrial Development, and Work