ENTERPRISE AI ANALYSIS
Whose, Which, and What Crisis? A Critical Analysis of Crisis in Computing Supply Chains
This paper introduces a different way of thinking about crisis, identifying whose, which, and what crisis is at stake when dominant articulations of computing supply chains emphasize breakages, delays, and disruptions as reasons to further control supply chains. We call this formulation "against crisis thinking”. Against crisis thinking emphasizes how crisis in and along the computing supply chain is never a self-evident phenomenon. While HCI scholars have developed design and computing approaches to mitigate social, economic, and climate challenges in and along computing supply chains, the field has paid less attention to how the term crisis is first articulated in public discourse, how it is exploited by powerful actors to reinforce business as usual, and the uneven impacts of crisis thinking on marginalized communities. By providing such a formulation, we provide HCI multiple sites of intervention across a highly interconnected, complex, and transregional computing supply chain to generate progressive alternatives.
Executive Impact Summary
This analysis reframes the concept of 'crisis' in computing supply chains, moving beyond typical narratives of breakages and delays. It highlights how crises are often chronic, manufactured, and unevenly experienced, serving to reinforce existing power structures rather than being self-evident disruptions. The paper’s "against crisis thinking" approach provides critical sites of intervention for HCI and computing studies, emphasizing the need to consider whose crisis is at stake and its differential impact on marginalized communities. By examining the AI chip shortage and tech layoffs, it reveals how political and tech elites exploit crises to maintain control and obscure underlying social and environmental issues, fostering progressive alternatives through a nuanced understanding of temporality, labor, and agency across interconnected global supply chains.
65%
Global Semiconductor Supply from Taiwan
90%
Sophisticated Chip Production by Taiwan
75%
EDA & Core IP Market Share (US)
184B
Taiwan Chip Exports (25% GDP)
725,909
Tech Workers Laid Off (2020-2024)
1.2%
Average Tech Wage Increase (Below Inflation)
70%
Taiwan Water Consumption by Agriculture
Deep Analysis & Enterprise Applications
Select a topic to dive deeper, then explore the specific findings from the research, rebuilt as interactive, enterprise-focused modules.
This category explores how crises are not discrete, disruptive events, but rather chronic, manufactured, and uneven phenomena. It challenges conventional understandings by showing how structural factors, power dynamics, and marginalization contribute to prolonged instability, rather than sudden breakages. We delve into how crises are exploited by powerful actors to reinforce existing systems and disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.
Focusing on the human element of computing supply chains, this section examines the impact of tech layoffs and the rise of Generative AI on creative tech labor. It unpacks how these events are often framed as "natural" economic cycles, while in reality, they are manufactured to flatten wages, consolidate power, and create precarity. We highlight the implications for UX professionals and the broader tech workforce.
This category investigates the fragility of the global semiconductor supply chain, particularly through the lens of Taiwan's critical role. It explores how environmental factors like water stress, coupled with geopolitical tensions, create chronic crises that disproportionately affect local communities, such as farmers, while chipmakers continue to thrive. The narrative challenges the idea of a seamless, flow-driven supply chain.
Enterprise Process Flow: Semiconductor Supply Chain
System Companies
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EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services)
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IC Design
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IC Manufacturing (Wafer Fab)
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IC Assembly, Test, Packaging
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End Consumers
Case Study: Taiwanese Farmers vs. Chipmakers - The Water Crisis
Taiwan's semiconductor industry is locally dubbed a "water-voracious monster" (吃水怪) due to its immense water demands. The 2021 "drought of the century" severely impacted water supply, forcing rationing for homes and chipmakers. This led to distressed Taiwanese farmers resorting to "Rain-praying Mazu" rituals for relief, highlighting their deep reliance on water for agriculture (over 70% of Taiwan's water consumption). Government policies, aimed at ensuring water for the crucial chip industry, often prioritize it over farming, leading to conflicts like farmers fighting excavators redirecting water from rivers. This illustrates how an environmental crisis becomes a manufactured, uneven experience, where farmers' livelihoods and identities are sacrificed for the economic stability and national security tied to chip production, revealing "arrested autonomy" and an ongoing "crisis ordinariness".
Key Impact of Tech Layoffs
725,909
Tech Workers Laid Off (2020-2024)
| Topic | Dominant Tech Industry Narrative | Against Crisis Thinking Perspective |
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| GenAI Adoption |
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| Worker Agency |
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Advanced ROI Calculator
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Implementation Roadmap
Our strategic roadmap outlines how to integrate "against crisis thinking" into your enterprise AI initiatives, ensuring sustainable and ethically conscious transformation.
Phase 1: Reframe Crisis as Chronic & Manufactured
Shift organizational perception of crises from discrete events to ongoing, socially constructed phenomena. Analyze historical and systemic factors contributing to current challenges in computing supply chains.
Phase 2: Expand Supply Chain Analysis Scope
Implement tools and processes to look vertically and laterally across computing supply chains. Identify hidden connections between different actors and regions, from raw materials to end-users, to uncover true impact vectors.
Phase 3: Identify & Challenge Power Dynamics
Conduct stakeholder analysis to reveal whose interests are served by current crisis narratives. Expose how dominant actors exploit "crises" to reinforce business-as-usual and maintain control, particularly over labor and resources.
Phase 4: Support Ethical Agency & Marginalized Communities
Design AI solutions and policies that explicitly acknowledge and support the ethical agency of all workers, including marginalized groups. Prioritize solutions that mitigate uneven impacts and empower those most affected by supply chain disruptions.
Phase 5: Intervene for Progressive Alternatives
Develop design interventions that actively challenge existing power structures and generate progressive alternatives. Focus on creating transparent, equitable, and sustainable computing supply chain practices, moving beyond mere "resilience" to true systemic change.
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