The events, commonly referred to as ‘riots’, that transpired in December at the Wistron manufacturing plant in Bengaluru, India, have once again put the spotlight on the plight of workers in electronics manufacturing. This is reminiscent of the series of suicides, suicide attempts and subsequent struggles at Foxconn complexes in China that had sparked global outrage a decade ago. As a result of this, the alarming working conditions at factories like these came to light. However, the debate over these issues has all but subsided during the past five years.

Can we expect that working conditions within the industry will change for the better? What are the factors that led to these patterns of mistreatment in either country? And is it possible to manufacture electronics in a socially sustainable way?

As consumers and investors are increasingly looking into sustainability as a key metric of their decision making, we take a closer look at social sustainability within the electronics industry – an aspect oftentimes overlooked.

For this, we are joined by Dr. Jenny Chan, Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and co-author of Dying for an IPhone: Apple, Foxconn, and The Lives of China's Workers, and Dr. Neethi P., researcher at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and author of Globalization lived locally: A labour geography perspective.