Getting a job, or changing from one job to another, is usually of interest only to the people directly involved. Mark Granovetter sees it differently, however, and so will his readers. He provides for the first time a detailed account and analysis of how professionals are channeled into high-level jobs. It is friends, and sometimes relatives, who provide the crucial information and contacts. This does not seem surprising in any individual case but it is often denied in the aggregate.

Granovetter also explores the nature of the relation between job-changer and his contact, and gives systematic attention to the problem of why some individuals have the "right" contacts while others do not. He traces the way job information moves from the employer who has a vacancy to the man who ultimately fills it, and discusses the factors that influence the transmission of the information. In conclusion he considers the impact of these factors on career patterns, organizational structure, and "affirmative action" programs.

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. Ironically, 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 incidents of grassroots resistance to make a passionate plea aimed at uniting--and liberating--the forgotten workers who make our twenty-first-century lives possible.