A Nation on the Line: Call Centers as Postcolonial Predicaments in the PhilippinesIn 2011 the Philippines surpassed India to become what the New York Times referred to as "the world's capital of call centers." By the end of 2015 the Philippine call center industry employed over one million people and generated twenty-two billion dollars in revenue. In A Nation on the Line Jan M. Padios examines this massive industry in the context of globalization, race, gender, transnationalism, and postcolonialism, outlining how it has become a significant site of efforts to redefine Filipino identity and culture, the Philippine nation-state, and the value of Filipino labor. She also chronicles the many contradictory effects of call center work on Filipino identity, family, consumer culture, and sexual politics. As Padios demonstrates, the critical question of call centers does not merely expose the logic of transnational capitalism and the legacies of colonialism; it also problematizes the process of nation-building and peoplehood in the early twenty-first century. |
Other editions - View all
A Nation on the Line: Call Centers as Postcolonial Predicaments in the ... Jan M. Padios No preview available - 2018 |
A Nation on the Line: Call Centers as Postcolonial Predicaments in the ... Jan M. Padios No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
ABS-CBN accent affective American asked Bacolod Business Process Outsourcing call center agents call center employees call center industry call center jobs call center workers Call Control callers capital chapter colonial company’s consumer consumption Convergys country’s coworkers customer service described discourse Duke University Duke University Press Elphin emotional English ethnographic experience explained feminized fieldwork Filipino call center Filipino/American relatability gender global economy HIV/AIDS identity industry leaders industry’s interactions interview intimacy Joel knowledge economy knowledge process outsourcing language Manila Mia’s narrative neoliberal offshore offshore outsourcing one’s parents Philippine call center Philippine-American War politics postcolonial postindustrial precarity problem productive professional questions Quezon City racialized recruitment relational labor relationships research participants Ronnie Ryan’s Sammy sexual shift skills social reproduction subjects Tadiar team leader technical support transnational transwomen understanding United Vox Elite work’s workplace young