Undercover at Foxconn shows workers 'numbed'

My days spent undercover, pretending to be a manufacturing worker at Foxconn, were triggered by what was at the time nine suicide attempts in five months. Seven of the company's employees had died. By now, that number is up to 10.

Participant observation has been among my primary tactics during the few years I have spent in journalism, working mostly as an investigative reporter.

This was no coincidence. The widening income gap and emerging clashes of interests between social groups in recent years gave rise to investigative journalism and participant observation as a way to help the reporter and the readers understand the rationale behind incidents like these.