Borders in Service
Enactments of Nationhood in Transnational Call Centres
Published on 21. September 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-4875-2059-5 (ISBN)
Description
Borders in Service traces the intersection of service labour and national identity across global call centres in seven countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Mauritius, Morocco, the Philippines, and the US-Mexico border. While most studies on offshore call centres have focused on India this collection explores the experiences of call center workers in many of the newly emerging hubs of transnational service work.
In this collection, Kiran Mirchandani and Winifred Poster have gathered a wide range of contributors to explore the dynamics within global call centres. Such dynamics include: language, speech, accent issues, expressions of consumer sentiment, physical space, and organizational, human resource, and labour policies. By grounding the theoretical debates on nationhood and labour in the realities of daily life in global call centres, Mirchandani and Poster have created a timely, accessible and revealing collection that will change what we know about offshored customer service work.
In this collection, Kiran Mirchandani and Winifred Poster have gathered a wide range of contributors to explore the dynamics within global call centres. Such dynamics include: language, speech, accent issues, expressions of consumer sentiment, physical space, and organizational, human resource, and labour policies. By grounding the theoretical debates on nationhood and labour in the realities of daily life in global call centres, Mirchandani and Poster have created a timely, accessible and revealing collection that will change what we know about offshored customer service work.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4875-2059-5 (9781487520595)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Kiran Mirchandani is at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
Winifred Poster is at Washington University in St. Louis.
Winifred Poster is at Washington University in St. Louis.
Content
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1
Enactments of Nationhood in Transnational Call Centers
Winifred R. Poster and Kiran Mirchandani
Part I: Call Centers as Building Blocks for Narratives of the Nation-State
Chapter 2
"El Salvador Works": The Creation and Negotiation of a National Brand and the Transnational Imaginary
Cecilia M. Rivas
Chapter 3: Growing Downhill? Contestations of Sovereignty and the Creation of Itinerant Workers in Guyanese Call Centers
Alissa Trotz, Kiran Mirchandani, and Iman Khan
Chapter 4
'An Island Off the West Coast of Australia:' Multiplex Geography and the Growth of Transnational Tele-Mediated Service Work in Mauritius
Chris Benner and Jairus Rossi
Part II: Constructing Nationally-Appropriate (and In-Appropriate) Workers
Chapter 5
We Serve the World: Everyday Nationalism and English in the Philippine Offshore Call Centers
Aileen O. Salonga
Chapter 6
Transnational Homies and The Urban Middle Class: Enactments of Class, Nation, and Modernity in Guatemalan Call Centers
Luis Pedro Meono Artiga
Part III: Caught in the Middle: Labors of Borders and Crossings
Chapter 7
Migrations a L'Envers: Global Service work and Discursive Crossings
Sanae Elmoudden
Chapter 8
Border Speech Between Two National Linguistic Ideologies: The Case of Bilingual El Paso Call Centers
Josiah Heyman and Amado Alarcon
Summary
Chapter 9
Conclusions: Borders in Service
Kiran Mirchandani and Winifred R. Poster
List of Contributors
Introduction
Chapter 1
Enactments of Nationhood in Transnational Call Centers
Winifred R. Poster and Kiran Mirchandani
Part I: Call Centers as Building Blocks for Narratives of the Nation-State
Chapter 2
"El Salvador Works": The Creation and Negotiation of a National Brand and the Transnational Imaginary
Cecilia M. Rivas
Chapter 3: Growing Downhill? Contestations of Sovereignty and the Creation of Itinerant Workers in Guyanese Call Centers
Alissa Trotz, Kiran Mirchandani, and Iman Khan
Chapter 4
'An Island Off the West Coast of Australia:' Multiplex Geography and the Growth of Transnational Tele-Mediated Service Work in Mauritius
Chris Benner and Jairus Rossi
Part II: Constructing Nationally-Appropriate (and In-Appropriate) Workers
Chapter 5
We Serve the World: Everyday Nationalism and English in the Philippine Offshore Call Centers
Aileen O. Salonga
Chapter 6
Transnational Homies and The Urban Middle Class: Enactments of Class, Nation, and Modernity in Guatemalan Call Centers
Luis Pedro Meono Artiga
Part III: Caught in the Middle: Labors of Borders and Crossings
Chapter 7
Migrations a L'Envers: Global Service work and Discursive Crossings
Sanae Elmoudden
Chapter 8
Border Speech Between Two National Linguistic Ideologies: The Case of Bilingual El Paso Call Centers
Josiah Heyman and Amado Alarcon
Summary
Chapter 9
Conclusions: Borders in Service
Kiran Mirchandani and Winifred R. Poster
List of Contributors