Challenging the Chip
Encyclopedia
Challenging the Chip is a 2006 book on "labor rights and environmental justice in the global electronics industry". It is published by Temple University Press
Temple University Press
Temple University Press is a university press publishing house that is part of Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The press was founded in 1969....

, Philadelphia. In three parts, the book looks at global electronics, environmental justice
Environmental justice
Environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In the words of Bunyan Bryant,...

 and labor rights
Labor rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe...

, and electronic waste
Electronic waste
Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. There is a lack of consensus as to whether the term should apply to resale, reuse, and refurbishing industries, or only to product that cannot be used for its...

 and extended producer responsibility
Extended producer responsibility
Extended producer responsibility is a strategy designed to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with goods throughout their life cycles into the market price of the products.- Definition :...

. In four appendices, the book also deals with the principles of environmental justice, the computer take-back campaign, sample shareholder resolutions, and the electronics recycler's pledge of true stewardship.

This 357-page book was put together by "scores of people around the world (who) have been involved over the course of several years in the conceptualization, development, editing and production (of it)".

"New wave of technology"

In his Foreword to the text, former Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower
James Allen "Jim" Hightower is an American syndicated columnist, activist and author.-Life and career:Born in Denison, Texas, Hightower came from a working class background. He worked his way through college as assistant general manager of the Denton Chamber of Commerce and later landed a spot as...

 makes out a case to explain how "technology happens". He writes: "Take cars. After Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

 began mass production, it took only a flash in time for these four-wheeled chunks of technology to wholly transform our landscape, environment, economy, culture, psychology, and ... well, pretty much our whole world. For better or worse, cars created freeways, shopping malls, McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

, drive-in banking -- even the Beach Boys!"

Hightower argues: "A new wave of technology is sweeping the land. It is embodied in the tiny chips (and the computers they power) that are radically and rapidly transforming our world -- and, like the automobile, not always for the better."

Story of the 'dark side of the chip'

He also contends that the story of the "dark side of the chip" needs to be "told and retold" across the "global village" before it is too late to do anything about it.

This book narrates the story of how the high-tech industry grew in the "Valley of Heart's Delight" (before the place got renamed to Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

) and how Santa Clara Valley
Santa Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. Much of Santa Clara County and its county seat, San José, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its high concentration...

 fruit-processing workers such as Alida Hernandez got reinvented into "clean room" workers. This "deplorable pattern is still bing replicated around the world".

Stories of electronic workers suffering toxic exposures

This 357-page book contains stories about electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

 workers suffering toxic exposures, and fighting over it. From south-west US and the Maquiladora
Maquiladora
A maquiladora or maquila is a concept often referred to as an operation that involves manufacturing in a country that is not the client's and as such has an interesting duty or tariff treatment...

 region on the US-Mexico border, to Malaysia, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

This book argues that "far too (words) have been addressed to the downside of the (electronics industry's) revolution". Its co-editors, in a signed article titled 'The Quest for Sustainability and Justice in a High-Tech World', say: "Although most consumers are eager to enjoy their latest computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

s, television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

s, cellular phones, iPods, and electronic games, few relate the declining prices of these and other electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

 technologies to the labor of Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...

 women, who are paid pennies a day."

Other issues focussed on by the co-editors include environmental degradation
Environmental degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife...

, occupational health hazards, and the "widespread ignorance" of the "health and ecological footprints of the global electronics industry".

There are problems of contamination by hi-tech manufacturing (of workers, air, land and water) from all around -- Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

 in the US, Silicon Glen
Silicon Glen
Silicon Glen is a nickname for the high tech sector of Scotland. It is applied to the Central Belt triangle between Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh, which includes Fife, Glasgow and Stirling; although electronics facilities outside this area may also be included in the term. The term has been in...

 in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Silicon Island in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, and Silicon Paddy in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. It contrasts the reality between the "CEOs and upper management" drawing "multimillion dollar salaries and 'golden parachutes'" as against the reality of the production workers living in packed dormitories and often facing sweatshop conditions.

Unsung heroines and heroes

While acknowledging the work of the hi-tech revolution pioneers, this book's editors also points to the "accomplishments of the unsung heroines and heroes of this revolution's other side". Including Santa Clara Center for Occupational Safety and Health founder Amanda Hawes; San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 housewife Lorraine Ross, who battled against Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation's polluting practices in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

; Thai
Thai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...

 occupational health physician Dr. Orapan Metadilogkul who confronted Seagate Corporation; and Scot
Scot
A Scot is a member of an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland, derived from the Latin name of Irish raiders, the Scoti.Scot may also refer to:People with the given name Scot:* Scot Brantley , American football linebacker...

tish semiconductor worker Helen Clark "who gave her life fighting to provide a voice for poisoned workers of National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer, that specialized in analog devices and subsystems,formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. The products of National Semiconductor included power management circuits, display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers,...

's plant in Silicon Glen
Silicon Glen
Silicon Glen is a nickname for the high tech sector of Scotland. It is applied to the Central Belt triangle between Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh, which includes Fife, Glasgow and Stirling; although electronics facilities outside this area may also be included in the term. The term has been in...

".

Globalisation of electronics, labour rights, product end-of-life

Its editors say this book has "two geographical frames of reference" -- the vicinity of San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

 (or, Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

), and "parts of the world increasingly integrated into global networks of electronics production, consumption, and disposal". This volume looks at three "broad, integrative themes": the globalization of electronics manufacturing; labour rights and environmental justice; and the product end-of-life cycle issues (e-waste, and extended producer responsibility).

In terms of global electronics, the book focuses on Silicon Valley (where the US electronics industry's roots lie, and which has a three-decade history of community and worker dialogue and struggle). It also looks at electronics manufacturing in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, and Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe is a term describing former communist states in Europe, after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept...

.

In terms of labour rights and "environmental justice", the book looks at the stories of workers and environmentalists taking up such issues -- "work hazards, antiunion hostility, and environmental health perils" -- in countries that range from the US, to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, among others.

E-waste issues get looked at in the context of trading or dumping from the North to South. "But as nations like India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 increasingly modernize, their own industries and consumers are contributing to the problems as well," says the editors.

Failed to keep pace with social and environmental advances

They argue that while the electronics industry leaders have produced "enormous technical innovation over the years", they have failed to keep "sufficient pace with the socially and environmentally oriented advances that are available to them." In their chapter titled 'The Quest for Sustainability', co-editors Ted Smith
Ted Smith
Ted Smith is the founder and former executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, co-founder of the International Campaign for Responsible Technology, and chair of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition steering committee....

, David A Sonnenfeld
David A Sonnenfeld
David A. Sonnenfeld is Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Studies, at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry department. He is co-editor of Ecological Modernisation Around the World: Perspectives and Critical Debates...

 and David Naguib Pellow
David Naguib Pellow
David Naguib Pellow has written widely on themes, and edited books, related to the environment. He co-edited, in 2006, the book Challenging the Chip. He is currently Professor, Don Martindale Endowed Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota. Previously, he was Associate Professor...

 suggest that sustainability, environmental justice and labour rights "cannot lie solely in the hands of either the social movements or the captains of industry or the representatives of the state". Instead, it suggests, all citizens and stakeholders must play a role in shaping the industry, its workers, and the environment wherever communities get affected.

"Downside not addressed"

Says an introduction to its contents: "Of the millions of words written over the past several decades about the electronics industry's incredible transformation of our world, far too few have been addressed (to) the downside of this revolution. Many are surprised to learn that environmental degradation and occupational health hazards are as much a part of high-tech manufacturing as miniaturization and other such marvels."

Third World women's labour, pollute surroundings

Editors Ted Smith
Ted Smith
Ted Smith is the founder and former executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, co-founder of the International Campaign for Responsible Technology, and chair of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition steering committee....

, David A Sonnenfeld
David A Sonnenfeld
David A. Sonnenfeld is Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Studies, at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry department. He is co-editor of Ecological Modernisation Around the World: Perspectives and Critical Debates...

 and David Naguib Pellow
David Naguib Pellow
David Naguib Pellow has written widely on themes, and edited books, related to the environment. He co-edited, in 2006, the book Challenging the Chip. He is currently Professor, Don Martindale Endowed Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota. Previously, he was Associate Professor...

 also comment: "Although most consumers are eager to enjoy their latest computers, televisions, cellular phones, iPods, and electronic games, few relate the declining prices of these and other electronic technologies to the labor of Third World women, who are paid pennies a day. Fewer still realize that the amazingly powerful microprocessors and superminiaturized, high-capacity memory devices harm the workers who produce them and pollute the surrounding communities' air and water.

Comments on the book

Dr. Sandra Steingraber
Sandra Steingraber
Sandra Steingraber is an American biologist, author, and cancer survivor in the tradition of Rachel Carson. Steingraber writes and lectures on the environmental factors that contribute to reproductive health problems and environmental links to cancer.-Awards and honors:* 1997 - Named a Ms...

, author of the book Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment calls this book "essential reading for anyone who owns a cell phone or a computer" and says "our digital possessions connect us not only to global information but also to global contamination and injustice". Nicholas Ashford, MIT Professor of Technology and Policy and co-author of Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development calls the work "an impressive, comprehensive critique and hopeful, but realistic, blueprint for transforming the global electronics industry into a sustainable one encompassing technological advance, environmental improvement, and equitable, safe, and secure employment".

Jan Mazurek of the University of California at Los Angeles's Department of Urban Planning and author of Making Microchips says that "contrary to high tech's clean image, this pioneering work illustrates the industry's environmental and economic downsides from the birthplace of Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

 to the four corners of the globe to which the industry recently has spread". Mazurek comments that this book is "told from the compelling and passionate perspective of workers and activists involved in these struggles".

Regions covered

Chapters of the book cover "Made in China" electronics workers, Thailand's electronic sector's corporate social responsibility, electronic workers in India, workers in and around Central and Eastern Europe's semiconductor plants (Russia, Belarus, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania), Silicon Valley's Toxics' Coalition and workers' struggles, Mexico, Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park, other issues from Taiwan, high-tech pollution in Japan, the electronic waste trade, e-waste in Delhi, producer responsibility laws in Sweden and Japan, among other themes.

Contributors

Its contributors include Ravi Agarwal
Ravi Agarwal
Ravi Agarwal, a Communications Engineer and a land artist, is also founding Director of Toxics Link, an environmental non-profit organisation working in New Delhi, India. It focuses on issues of waste, waste trade, and toxics, and has been active for over a decade.-External links:*...

, Leslie A. Byster, Shengling Chang, Hua-Mei Chiu, Anibel Ferus-Comelo, Tira Foran, Connie García, Ken Geiser, Yu-Ling Ku, Joseph LaDou
Joseph LaDou
Joseph LaDou, M.D. , was a founding editor of the . From 1992-2005, he was director of the International Center for Occupational Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. LaDou's study of the global migration of hazardous industries has led to efforts to control occupational and...

, Apo Leong, Boy Lüthje, Glenna Matthews, James McCourt, Sanjiv Pandita, Raquel E. Partida Rocha, David Naguib Pellow
David Naguib Pellow
David Naguib Pellow has written widely on themes, and edited books, related to the environment. He co-edited, in 2006, the book Challenging the Chip. He is currently Professor, Don Martindale Endowed Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota. Previously, he was Associate Professor...

, Jim Puckett
Jim Puckett
Jim Puckett was an American track and field sprinter at Cove High School and the University of Oregon.-Early years:Nicknamed "Cove Comet", Puckett is considered among the greatest track and field athletes in Oregon prep history....

, Chad Raphael, Robin Schneider, Amelia Simpson, Ted Smith
Ted Smith
Ted Smith is the founder and former executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, co-founder of the International Campaign for Responsible Technology, and chair of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition steering committee....

, David A Sonnenfeld
David A Sonnenfeld
David A. Sonnenfeld is Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Studies, at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry department. He is co-editor of Ecological Modernisation Around the World: Perspectives and Critical Debates...

, Robert Steiert, Joel Tickner, Naoko Tojo, Wen-ling Tu, Kishore Wankhade, Andrew Watterson, David Wood
David Wood (environmental campaigner)
David Wood was Executive Director of the GrassRoots Recycling Network , in Madison, Wisconsin; and organizing director of the nationwide Computer TakeBack Campaign ....

, and Fumikazu Yoshida.

Editors

This book is edited by Ted Smith
Ted Smith
Ted Smith is the founder and former executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, co-founder of the International Campaign for Responsible Technology, and chair of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition steering committee....

, David A Sonnenfeld
David A Sonnenfeld
David A. Sonnenfeld is Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Studies, at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry department. He is co-editor of Ecological Modernisation Around the World: Perspectives and Critical Debates...

 and David Naguib Pellow
David Naguib Pellow
David Naguib Pellow has written widely on themes, and edited books, related to the environment. He co-edited, in 2006, the book Challenging the Chip. He is currently Professor, Don Martindale Endowed Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota. Previously, he was Associate Professor...

, with Leslie A. Byster, Shenglin Chang, Amanda Hawes, Wen-Ling Tu, and Andrew Watterson. Its foreword is by Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower
James Allen "Jim" Hightower is an American syndicated columnist, activist and author.-Life and career:Born in Denison, Texas, Hightower came from a working class background. He worked his way through college as assistant general manager of the Denton Chamber of Commerce and later landed a spot as...

.

External links

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