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Project Title
Making and Monetizing Grassroots Innovation: Technological Trajectories and Arbitrage in China’s Third-Party Mobile Phone Repair
Research Topic
Yu's research examines grassroots innovation, technological constraints, and livelihoods in China's third-party mobile phone repair industry. Through planned ethnographic fieldwork in Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei electronics market, the project explores how repair technicians develop technical knowledge and practices while working within technological architectures largely controlled by major technology companies.
Rather than framing third-party repair primarily as resistance or romanticising it as independent grassroots innovation, the research examines how repair practices are shaped by technological dependence while also enabling technical adaptation and creating economic opportunities. It further examines how these practices are connected to wider supply chains, industrial hierarchies, and the distribution of value within the mobile phone industry.
Yu's PhD research is supported by the LSE PhD Studentship.
Supervisors
Professor Bingchun Meng and Dr Jean-Christophe Plantin
Biography
Before joining LSE, Yu obtained his Bachelor's degree in Journalism from South China University of Technology, with a minor in Computer Science and Technology. During his undergraduate studies, he conducted fieldwork on informal labour and technology-related industries in Guangzhou, including garment markets, electronics markets and urban villages. These experiences sparked his interest in the intersections of labour, technology, and livelihoods. Building on these interests, he led a data journalism project examining working hours and the well-being of employees at major Chinese internet companies. The project won First Prize in the Seventh China Data Journalism Competition. Yu subsequently obtained his Master's degree in Journalism and Communication from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. His Master's research involved five months of ethnographic fieldwork in a third-party mobile phone repair company, examining how repair technicians develop technical knowledge and bypass the constraints imposed by mobile phone manufacturers. This research was presented at the 2025 conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).
Expertise
Repair and Maintenance; Science, Technology and Society(STS); Grassroots Innovation; Informal Labour