Global iPhone Local Labour: Exploring ICT Production, Labour and Cultural Production.

This article examines a 2020 labour dispute at a Wistron-owned iPhone assembly factory near Bangalore, India, situating it within the broader critical political economy of global smartphone production and consumption. It expands the theory of "circuits of labour" by incorporating a geographical centre–periphery framework that highlights the flow of capital, labour, and prosumption between urban software hubs (the centre) and peripheral manufacturing sites. The study also analyzes worker-generated content (WGC) created during the factory unrest, categorizing it as a "collective visual record without clear advocacy goal but with empowerment effect," illustrating the complex role of smartphones as both tools of cultural production and symbols of labour exploitation. Ultimately, the article raises critical questions about the contradictions inherent in producing "liberating technologies" like the iPhone under exploitative conditions and the implications for labour, migration, and digital cultural production in India's evolving electronics manufacturing sector.