Offshore

Reviews / Votes

The contemporary state faces a continued tension between facilitating capitalism's operations wherever they might be and sustaining its national population's economic well-being. Jamie Peck's superb book focuses readers on that tension as they come to appreciate the complexity of the murky world in which we all now are deeply embedded. * Ron Johnston, University of Bristol, Journal of Social Policy * Offshore is a superb book of very wide significance. Employing a sophisticated, multi-layered, nuanced analysis Jamie Peck really gets inside this elusive and opaque industry whose rapidly evolving practices are transforming business and economic landscapes at a global scale with potentially immense economic, social and political implications. It is, without doubt, a major contribution. * Peter Dicken, Emeritus Professor University of Manchester * Jamie Peck details the workings of outsourcing industry, the culture it creates, and the levels to which firms are willing to go to deliver on a contract. At bottom, outsourcing is about cost; higher up, it is accompanied by evangelical promises of organizational efficiency; and in some cases there are truly transformational results, with wholly new capabilities and smoothly running global operations. This book is a must read if you wish to understand how companies decide what to outsource and what they expect will result, once the armies of business consultants have finished their work. * Amy Katherine Glasmeier, Professor of Economic Geography and Regional Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Offshore is a revelatory exploration of the offshore outsourcing complex what many of us consider the heart of darkness of the modern global economy. Crossing oceans and continents in pursuit of his quarry, Jamie Peck examines it from every angle the corporations who see outsourcing as a way to cut expense and bother, the providers of outsourcing services who scramble for contracts in a dog-eat-dog competitive nightmare, the domestic politics and politicians, the constantly churning geography (offshore, nearshore, onshore) and the looming fear of automation. Who knew that the unhappy providers yearn for respect and dream of a time when they will be strategic partners rather than bottom feeders? Who knew that everyone in the business agrees that outsourcing hardly ever works well? Offshore is first-class research and fascinating to read. * Erica Schoenberger, Dept of Environmental and Health Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University *