For next week, please view Sonali Gulati's Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night (link located on the course D2L site).
1. From your viewing of the documentary and referring to A. Aneesh's chapter "Virtual Migration", briefly answer the following:
How does the call center training and work conditions transform one’s sense of having a regional and national identity? In other words, how does Gulati call attention to the ways in which globalization and the creation of a virtual labor force transform formerly geographically bounded identities? (Your answer must include at least one reference to A. Aneesh's chapter)
2. Review the "Reading Room: the economics of outsourcing" essay in the course reader. Visit "Alladeen" -- the website for The Builders Association's theatrical production Alladeen Bangalore-London-New York.
Go to the "cyber immigrants" section and view the videos in:
My Strangest Phone Call
Perceptions of America and American Culture
Aspirations for the Future
(move your cursor over the "blue diamonds" on the left hand side of the screen to get section titles)
How does the "Alladeen" site, through its design (magic lamp motif), and its use and organization of video and sound clips, allow us, the users, to confront and challenge our expectations of call center workers and their lived experience as virtual laborers? (Provide one example from the video sections listed above)
A. Aneesh states in a chapter entitled "Virtual Migration," The programming schemes of virtual integration do not entail transporting the body from one place to another; instead they keep the body in one place while performance travels to other locations,"(Aneesh, 69). This statement could not ring more correctly in regard to Sonali Gulati's work in Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night. Gulati focuses the attention of this short documentary on the work force in American based company's call centers in New Delhi, India. These workers make calls for different companies, such as CompuServe, AT&T, Credit Card companies ect., and speak to American customers that are thousands of miles away. They are even required to have, but not necessarily required to tell the customer, their alias name. Instead of using their real name, which could be difficult for some to understand, they use very simple names for example, one woman uses the name Carol Jones when she speaks to her customers. The identities of these workers are being changed because of the growing technology of these companies, and the desire to maximize the amount of people these companies can reach. With a 12 hour time difference between India and America, these workers take over just about the same time the American work force is leaving their day of work. This idea of changing identities is challenged slightly by work of the Alladeen website. This website to me seems to be giving the workers of the out sourced compaines, and Identity of their own. I refer specifically to the videos in the "My Strangest Phone call section." This is set up as four separate videos on the screen, of four different people talking about literally what they have encountered in making these phone calls to be of a completely different culture and background. The very use of the technology to show who and what these workers are alone is a huge indicator of the breaking down of the geographical bounded and able to show people thousand of miles away what it's like to be a part of this idea of virtual integration.
ReplyDeleteIn Gilati’s documentary entitled Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night Sonali travels to one of the largest call centers in the world in order to interview its employees. Many of the people working there have been given American aliases in order to connect more easily with the people they are on the phone with. The majority of costumers are stationed in America and don’t even realize that the person on the other end of the phone is half way around the world, working mainly at night to accommodate our time schedule here. As if it were magic employees turn from their natural selves into a “ Carol” or an “Anne Smith” as soon as they pick up the phone. Aneesh’s chapter “Virtual Migration” covers phenomenon of joining a new culture or community without even leaving your home to do so. Through advances technology and satellite communication one can turn to a whole new world by simply clicking with their computers, or in call center cases, by pretending to be someone different entirely in order to satisfy someone they have never met. On the Alladeen website there are numerous examples of crossing a boundary without actually physically moving. Sound and video content give us a look and feel into what the lives of workers at a call center look like. In the “Aspirations for the Future” section people are interviewed on their dreams and five-year plans, something we all connect and bond over. Not a single person said that they would be working at a call center, but in a tremendously growing business they have all sought after jobs there in order to make a living. The fact that these individuals have given their daily lives and are sacrificing their nightlife to “travel” across the globe and help people in a language completely different from their own and an alias nothing like them is a huge example of how boundaries are broken everyday and how globalization is effecting us all.
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ReplyDeleteThe Alladeen web site provided a very unique insight into an industry that most Americans have, at some point, interacted with, but most of us would have never thought about whom or where the person really is at the other end of the line. However, international telemarketing has become a huge part of 21st century society-- as a direct result of modern globalization through technology. Many of the people in the clips spoke of how their perception of Americans had changed since they started working at the call center. And most of them admitted that their original opinion was also based on some form of media (music videos, television, etc.) This is a brilliant demonstration of how national borders are becoming less and less relevant due to technology. In Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night, Gilati’s documentary, call center employees are interviewed and asked about their jobs. The thesis of the documentary is that these people are essentially traveling thousands of miles to the United States every night, without leaving their workstation. The training for the call center employs an assimilation process that includes the employees getting an alias, so the American consumer feels more comfortable. This idea is described in the following passage from Virtual Migration: “The programming schemes of virtual integration do not entail transporting the body from one place to another; instead they keep the body in one place while performance travels to other locations" (Aneesh 69).
ReplyDeleteIsaiah Wells Section 314
ReplyDeleteSonali Gulati’s documentary about the call center in India briefly cultivated the topic of globalization and the creation of a virtual labor force, which indeed surpass waters and most obstacles. The identity of the call center in India did become unravelled in the documentary; Sonali Gulati even admitted to being surprised at the center’s operation. She tells a story about a culture in India that embraces transnational capitalism from the United States, and confronts some cultural misconceptions.
In A. Aneesh's in depth article, she warns us to keep in mind that virtual migration happens between many countries, companies, cultures, and not just between India and the United States. However, both A. Aneesh’s and Sonali Gulati’s pieces use India and the United States as the example. They both show advantages that response presence offers businesses, like lower employee costs, 24-hr work assistance, spatial integration, and the list goes on. The disadvantages or obstacles virtual migration meets with is heavily weighted on the ability to communicate effectively and to relate with the other culture. There are solutions to these problems and A. Aneesh gives an extensive explanation, and talk’s about how sites are set up at job specific locations where a small outsourced group is station locally as while as virtually. These circumstances that both authors presented show how glottalization has been formed through the outsourcing of these jobs and how a new identity for the country and people are being created.
Jon Phillips Section 314
ReplyDeleteThe most obvious way in which globalization and the creation of a virtual labor force transform identities is by forcing the labor force to adopt names and false (or secondary) identities in order to conform to the specifications set by the outsourcing transnational corporation in question, as in Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night. However, as A. Aneesh states in his essay, Virtual Migration, oftentimes in order for the virtual labor force to be effective, the labor force must set up a separate cell inside of the originating country (the United States, in his example) in order to act as a kind of bridge for the virtual labor force the work is being outsourced to. The software and, one could presume, the cultural specifications needed by the labor force cannot be dropped into a vaccuum and expect to be immediately and successfully adpoted by these workers- instead, the US team coordinates it all. The "Alladeen" website gives insight into this in the "How to neuter the mother tongue" segment- the speaker explains common mistakes by those in the training programs attempting to learn to speak with alternately a British or American accent, messing up the burrs and vowels (or something to that effect). Really very interesting.
DJ Tate
ReplyDeleteSection 301
The video shows Sonali goes over to India to get a look into the call centers. She gets intrigued to go when one of the telemarketers pronounced her name correctly. She goes and finds out the working conditions in these facilities. The people that work in these places make $7 a day, and make the company easily millions of dollars a day. There is also a program threw the company where they give all the employees "Americanized" names. They do this so they don't have to give their real names so there is no confusion. One of the men interviewed stated that,"We don't tell them we are calling from India, unless we have to." This just shows that people in big business can be a little bit of jerks. They touch on the point that due to globalization they have series of cables and junk going under the ocean to India, which means you can dial a 1-866- number and get a direct line to India. Its smart for the heads of big business to send this sort of work over seas, but at the same time it takes jobs out of the U.S.
Karch Schwake 301
ReplyDeleteThe video shows a girl that wants to look into the call centers in India. Sonali, likes it there becuase the callers can pernounce her name because they are from India. They make 7 ducks and day when the company is pulling in over a million dollars a day. They make the people take on more American names becuase they do not want people to know that they are from India. " we dont tell people that we are from India." it is a bad thing because they want to not let people to know where they are from. They are a bunch of jerks over there. I would never want to work for them. Because i would end up robbing all the heads of the companies because a guy has to eat.
The documentary provides insight how globalization diminishes the role of the nation state and through technology our society has transcended beyond the geographical and national borders. As described by Aneesh the “programming schemes of virtual integration do not entail transporting the body from one place to another; instead they keep the body in one place while performance travels to other locations”. The video introduces Sonali who travels to India to document the lives of call center workers who outsourced American workers. She finds out that even though the corporations pay chump change by American standards, these jobs are still the most sought after in the country with cut throat competition and even classes specifically to teach people how to work at a call center. Globalization allowed some wealth to flow to very poor countries as shown by these call centers, and make immense profits for the corporations in the process. In the end, the only losers of globalization are the people who live in nations with high income and a standard of living. The Alladeen website shows how people no longer need to physically interact with people around them; instead they can come together in a virtual world, which can increase efficiency but at the same time can cause social problems.
ReplyDeleteFilm 301
ReplyDeleteIn relation to the differences and similarities between real space and cyberspace, Aneesh writes, “Cyberspace, even in its drastic difference, does connect and integrate physical worlds far apart, linking labor from one world to another” (Aneesh 69). This statement thoroughly sums up the concept of physical events taking place through a means that lacks any real spatiality. Cyberspace, being the imaginative world through which computers function, allows any two places or people to function and interact in real-time. This idea is at the heart of Gulati’s film, which seeks to explore the way in which technology has allowed for globalization among different nations around the world. Exposing one of many call centers in India, it is revealed that in order to reach American customers effectively, Indian employees are given American names to use and must be able to speak English with an effective, believable accent. Through her film Gulati confirms the concept that with modern technology, spatial and national boundaries are nonexistent and the way has been paved for complete, worldwide integration. The result is physical in reality. However, the methods used rely wholly on virtual, nonexistent principles. In relation to the “Alladeen” website, a much more personal light is shed on call centers and those who work within them. The videos on the website provide, for example, insight into Indian perceptions of America. It becomes clear that before working at a call center, these individuals judged America solely on their interpretations of the media, ranging from music videos to movies. One worker claims that he thought Americans were “stupid” before he worked at a call center and interacted with them. After his experiences working, however, he claims to feel that Americans are “genuine” and “straightforward” people. Overall, the website provides a more personal, in-depth look at how one culture perceives another through strictly media-based and cyberspace connections.
ReplyDeleteSonali Gulati’s documentary is a great example of globalization and identity with call centers both nationally, and regionally. It was interesting to see how well everyone liked working there when the perception to most Americans is sweat shop conditions. Even Sonali said herself that she pictured it being a sweatshop but still following all laws. It was also interesting that so many people wanted to enter the field and had false alias’ to better relate to customers and to protect themselves. It was interesting to see that both A. Aneesh and Gulati talk use India and America as examples because that’s how I would use it as well. They both point out the lower costs of having call centers outsourced but Gulati really goes deeper and taps into the lives and the benefits those workers are receiving.
ReplyDeleteThe Alladeen site is almost set up like a call center. By clicking on a digit essentially and being transferred to one, or many people you don’t personally know. Then that person is talking directly to you much like a call center, whether it is about their opinions on Americans or on their strangest interactions. It was interesting to see and hear their opinions on Americans because one worker said “they are not as nice as they are portrayed in the media.” This is interesting because I would picture Americans being portrayed not very nice in the media. It was interesting to get that outside look on our culture.
Adam Wynne - Film 301
ReplyDeleteIn the documentary Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night, by Sonali Gilati, Gilati travels to India; there is one of the world’s largest call centers. She was given permission to interview employees, with a few exceptions. In her interviews, she found that most of the employees received fake names (known as alias’s) for their work; the reason for these fake names not to protect their identity or anything of that nature, but to make it easier for the people on the other end of the telephone line. One higher up person in the film said in a nutshell, “these alias names are better, because we don’t need any extra problems that could conflict with the customers aggravation.” All of these employees have a national identity on the phone line, because the alias’s they are given are American/British names. As a result, most of the time the people on the other end of the telephone line don’t even realize the person they’re talking to is all the way across the planet. In our shoes, we call for help, expecting for help, almost even thinking that the person on the other end of the phone call has one purpose in this world; to satisfy our need of why were calling. In A. Aneesh’s Virtual Migration chapter, she is quoted saying “the programming schemes of virtual integration do not entail transporting the body from one place to another; instead they keep the body in one place while performance travels to other locations.” (69) These call centers could not be a more perfect example of this very quote; this very chapter, in that: the people of these call centers travel to hundreds of locations every day, and yet they stay in one spot; on location every day.
Kira Klein:
ReplyDelete1.A. Aneesh talks about how corporations, due to outsourcing, are now and spread all across the globe and communication is done electronically and through the web. An “American” company can now be mostly located in India, unbeknownst to American consumers. In the documentary Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night, workers in Indian call centers are direct examples of this new global economy. The people captured in the documentary must take on western aliases and perfect an accent in order to maintain their jobs at the call centers. This change of name and accent makes those calling from the US, the UK, and Australia most likely unaware that they are talking to someone in another country. With her documentary, Gulati is showing us that by accessing these call centers we are virtually migrating to India to talk on the phone and engaging in trans-national communication. However, with the change of names and accents, this exchange between two nationalities is not acknowledged or seen as important.
2. We expect the people we talk to in call centers to be nameless helpers. Like a genie in a lamp we want them to grant us our wishes and make everything OK. However, we also don’t like to think of them as real people because that makes it a lot more difficult to complain to them and yell at them for our problems. The Builder’s Association’s website makes it uncomfortable in a sense because suddenly we are forced to come face to face with people who have dealt with us at potentially some of our least flattering moments. Even more jarring, is often we don’t think of the people in these centers for American companies as from a different place. For Americans, I think that it can be troubling to think that someone from a different country knows more about “our” corporations than us.
1.) A. Aneesh states that the ”...workers watch Hollywood films to understand American diction and undergo speech therapy to sound ‘American’ while receiving...coke and pizza...” This type of tranformation from being Indian to being American is also shown in “Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night” when the man with the structural engineer degree tells us that the English he has learned was from viewing a Nicolas Cage movie. While this is happening the Indian traditions are being replaced by ours through the migration of labor.
ReplyDelete2.) I believe that the website Alladeen allows us the viewer to be immersed in the “Eastern” ideology through a common theme we all do, wishing. The magical lamp shows many other users wishes, and allows us to immerse our own desires into the magic lamp; a theme from fictional stories that began in the Middle East. Then we are able to see and hear the stories of some of the workers of the call centers. These stories can be related to anybody coming home from a hard days work and telling funny stories of a conversation they had or even a confrontation with a higher-up.
1.) From the Gulati's film and from the reading you get this sense that the workers from the call center have multiple national identities. The film creates this feeling by interviewing the call center workers in Dehli. They have different identities for different countries by adopting a more english sounding name, and adopting different accents, even between american and british accents. By doing this they create the workers create a virtual presence that can go from country to country instantly. "This programming labor is both a cause and effect of globalization", Aneesh phrases what Guilati shows us this through the workers cultural adaptation of the regions they are servicing and being part of all imagined communities.
ReplyDelete2.)Like a djin jumping out of the virtual lamp alladeen programed into his web site, he shows us through the videos presented that wishing goes both ways. The videos help us learn who these people at these call centers are. People who aspire to go to school, have a family, more social time. Common wishes all people in general have. It was also interesting how they thought of the people from the countries they receive calls for. Only having those over the phone experiences to base how a whole nations ideals on.
1. Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night
ReplyDeleteIn the film, Gulati observes upon arriving in India, “Ironically, Bombay also runs on eastern standard time.” This is shown explicitly when the telemarketers or customer service representatives assist US customers at 2am and 4am. This reversal of the workday strongly links the identity of a call center worker to the corporate culture of the US. Also, call center workers use aliases to smooth the trans-pacific conversations, furthering the dissolution of being distinctly Indian. And although they are connected to and employed by American corporations, the relationship is similar to that of other third world countries and the US; one woman admits to making 7 dollars a day while reaping over a million dollars in late charges and fees from US customers.
I loved the scene where the desperate structural engineer has to recite the plot of a terrible US export, Face Off, to try to land a call center job. He says that he has studied National Geographic also, but it clearly is not enough. His accent is too thick to help American customers over the phone. It is sad that this Indian man wants so badly to strip himself of his accent in order to become a moderately successful Indian person. In order to be part of the global economy, these call center workers must learn a lot about American culture and surrender a lot of their identity, at least for 12 hours each night. In the book Virtual Migration, A. Aneesh says that “The programming schemes of virtual integration do not entail transporting the body from one place to another; instead, they keep the body in one place while performance travels to other locations.” Half of the day, Indian people become as American as possible. It seems like an unfair trade-off between the US corporations and their Indian employees, but it is the reality.
2. Alladeen
In the economics of outsourcing, “As the promotional website www.outsourcetoindia.com bluntly puts it, "salaries are dramatically lower than in Europe or the U.S… per agent cost in the USA is approximately $40,000 while in India it is only $5,000." But just to put this figure in perspective: despite the comparatively low wages, in India a call centre operator still makes more than the average doctor.”
With the magic lamp motif, this website flips the relationship a bit. Instead of call center operators helping people with technology or gathering fees for corporations, the call center operators are talking about their aspirations and goals, and we get to see their personalities come out a bit more. A couple of the featured call center workers enjoy their positions, or at least have accepted spending twelve hours every night working on the phone, serving Americans.
film 314
Gulati's film shows how these workers in the call training centers are creating more than on sense of national identity. The changing of their names and accents helps to achieve this. These workers are participating in virtual globalization. They are transforming there imagined selves through the migration of labor. Aneesh refers to the same issue of migration of labor. Because India is on a different time zone they can do work during our night hours and their day time. American companies want these Indian workers to become more Americanized in order to please their customers. Because of our technology we are able to communicate instantly with people across the globe. This interaction causes new imagined selves or identities in India and other places in the world.
ReplyDeleteIn "Aspirations for the Future" it talks about how these call center workers do not neccesarily want to do that job, but are forced to in order to make a living. They are in turn forced to change the way they are while connecting with people across the world. The magic lamp motif shows us how these call center workers are not just anonymous people on the phone granting our wishes. They are people just like us who have their owns wants, wishes and needs.
The long distance actuality between customer and tele-marketer is unapparent because of the effort on the tele-marketer's side to adapt the culture of said customer. Business technology and outsourcing makes it just as convenient to call up a customer service branch in India as a next-door neighbor. Geographical boundaries are easily overcome and now the cultural boundaries are too thanks to dialect classes. In the Alladen website, we had the rare opportunity to look the tele-marketers in the face and hear them speak unscripted. I though the magic lamp motif was clever because it played on our desires for overseas customer service branches to fix our problem/"grant our wish". The setup was very interactive and you could chose your speaker by clicking on them, just as you choose who you are going to pick up the phone and dial.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Poff, Film 314
ReplyDelete1. On one hand, the Indian call centers create new communities among those seeking these jobs by attracting applicants from across the country and giving them language and cultural contexts -- American holidays, for example, and American popular media -- that, along with the natural workplace environment designed to foster such, form the basis for a new community that transcends barriers within India as well as between Indians and Americans.
At the same time, the night shift work schedule and language/cultural shifts will also work to create a barrier between the Indian call center workers and the communities they are originally part of. So while there is a community building effect, this comes to some degree at a cost to the existing communities that the Indians are a part of -- though this works to cement the unique identity of the call center virtual community even further.
These forces which reshape a new community out of an existing one, without necessitating the wholesale physical removal of the individuals that "migrate" to this new community, demonstrates the principle of virtual migration.
2. In the years prior to the widespread outsourcing of call center jobs to India, automated phone menus were the next big thing in telephonic customer service. The telephone already introduces a form of communication with impediments to human contact, such as audio signal distortion and lack of eye contact or body language with those one converses; automated systems served to numb the average citizen and make the interaction a dehumanized experience.
The Alladeen web site goes a long way to reversing that. It shows us the real person on the other end of that phone; a real person with feelings, ambitions, joys and dislikes. It reminds us that when we pick up the phone, we aren't only dealing with soulless machines.
Personally, an expectation of mine that was challenged was how happy the call center workers were. This goes beyond the preconceived notion that the call centers would not be the quality work environments that many of them are shown to be. The call center workers were genuinely happy, in spite of the demands that the job placed on them. I saw this particularly in the response videos under "Aspirations for the future."
Perhaps that may or may not be a consequence of those specifically interviewed for the site. My observations are probably also colored by my own personal experiences working for a call center -- it could be rewarding, but it was very stressful and I derived little satisfaction from it. But then again, the American workplace environment is often cold, if not outright hostile. In India there is a definite sense of community in those workplaces, that seems to at least not be uncommon -- whereas in the US it is pretty rare.
1.) From the Gulati's film and from the reading you get this sense
ReplyDeletethat the workers from the call center have multiple national
identities. The film creates this feeling by interviewing the call
center workers in Dehli. They have different identities for
different countries by adopting a more english sounding name, and
adopting different accents, even between american and british
accents. By doing this they create the workers create a virtual
presence that can go from country to country instantly. "This
programming labor is both a cause and effect of globalization",
Aneesh phrases what Guilati shows us this through the workers
cultural adaptation of the regions they are servicing and being
part of all imagined communities.
2.)Like a djin jumping out of the virtual lamp alladeen programed
into his web site, he shows us through the videos presented that
wishing goes both ways. The videos help us learn who these people
at these call centers are. People who aspire to go to school, have
a family, more social time. Common wishes all people in general
have. It was also interesting how they thought of the people from
the countries they receive calls for. Only having those over the
phone experiences to base how a whole nations ideals on.
Kawika Kakugawa Film 301
Film 301
ReplyDeleteThe documentary, Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night and Aneesh’s “Virtual Migration” both illustrate and proves the concept of, “Cyberspace… does connect and integrate physical worlds far apart, linking labor from one world to another” (69). The documentary includes the two main concept of virtual migration: spatial integration and temporal integration. Spatial integration pertaining to the detachment of the work place and work performance while temporal integration includes “a real-time unification of different time zones.” These times zones are one example of the migration of labor; in India the call center will be working during the day while making a call during the night hours here. However, in order to communicate better with others on a global scale the Indian call center employees will take English class to reduce or completely abandoned their original Indian accent. Along with changing their accent or speaking ways, a change in name will also take place. Each employee will adopt a new name for the office; otherwise the original Indian names would be difficult for others in the work place to pronounce, thus delaying communication. The employees essentially adapting and possibly adopting a new culture, the American culture, as Gulati’s documentary reveals. Gulati asks questions pertaining to common American cultural aspect, such a description or definition of Halloween or Christmas. Essentially the Indian employees adopt a new American identity; this includes a new name, culture, and an entire language.
Gulati calls attention to how the virtual labor changes geographically bounded identities through the man who adapted himself to multiple accents and cultural aspects. He then teaches the other Indian employees these basic cultural aspects and languages, which helps and progresses communication throughout the call centers; thus a better understanding. Call centers also require fast and sufficient technology to connect better with other nations, since one company maybe based in America but then develop subsidiaries in India.
Film 314
ReplyDeleteThe film really demonstrates the connectivity that exists between distant nations through technology, yet there is still some dischord, or maybe at least misinformation. The call centers in India link directly to America, thus shattering the boundary between the two (not a physical boundary but more of a interpersonal boundary). A. Aneesh writes, "The continuous revolution of the instruments of production, distribution, and consumption has enabled a new labor regime in which labor moves and migrates without the worker's body." He is basically talking about how technological advances have allowed labor to migrate say from the U.S. to India without an acutal person moving with the labor. The call center employees in India are being employed by American companies - their labor is in essence migrating without them. These people are able to work through a complex call network that answers to calls from America. The misinformation exists due to such things as the false names that the call center employees give out when they receive a call from America. Instead of using their Indian names, they temporarily adopt an Americanized name so that the caller could possibly relate better to the employee, or maybe in a sense trust the employee more (it's ironic this way because the caller is already being lied to). I found it interesting that one of the employees learned English from watching the Nicolas Cage movie, Face/Off.
The Alladeen website was a great resource to learn more about the workings of the call centers as well as the people themselves. The "My Strangest Phone Call" section was very interesting. In each of the four small videos, these call operators gave stories that perfectly exemplify the wide range and connectivity that exists through this technology. One operator spoke to a District Attorney while one spoke to a pothead. This just shows the massive virtual integration existing through the use of technology and so-called "bodyless" labor migration. In these fours cases, we are given a window into four situations in which these employees spoke to people far away that they probably never would have in any other case (and there are probably hundreds more examples of this sort of connectivity and integration).
Sonali Gulati's documentary is a film that was released to bring the topic of globalization to our attention. Gulati takes the viewer on a tour of one of the call centers that functions around the clock, calling people in other countries (mostly the United States and U.K.) to collect payments for credit cards, or offer goods and services for companies such as CompuServ or Dell Computers. The workers make $7 a day, and have to take on an American name and have to speak English without an Indian accent. While the pay may be minimal by our standards, it is one of the highest paid jobs and most sought after jobs due to the pay and the working conditions. I don't necessarily feel that this is a bad situation for globalization. The workers in the call center seem to be treated better than most people in low income jobs in the United States, and the Indian workers get paid a lot by their standards and new jobs are created in a third world country, and the companies that are outsourcing labor save money which can create room for more skilled jobs in the United States. The Alladeen website is essentially telling us that in our world with ever expansive globalization, we do not need to interact with other people in person anymore, instead we can all come together in the “new world” of cyberspace, and also shows us that in this era of globalization, our cultures tend to collide and create new cultures or subcultures.
ReplyDelete