Abstract

Based on an empirical research on Foxconn plants in the Czech Republic, the aim of this article is to analyze how global production networks enable a time and space compression of the production process. In this way Foxconn is able to respond to the just-in-time requests of the market, while at the same time keeping the conflicts with the plant at minimum. We suggest that such a working of the global production networks is contingent on the socio-institutional context and on the composition of the workforce. These two aspects are key for the fulfilment of Foxconn's production needs as they offer necessary conditions for the compression of space and time of the workforce. The time-space compression is upheld by the international recruitment agencies that select, recruit and transport workers from their countries of origin to the Czech plants and manage the workforce both inside and outside the factories. The article examines three key nodes of this space-time compression: the recruitment of the workforce, the organization of production, and the management of reproduction.