How can America's information technology (IT) industry predict
serious labor shortages while at the same time laying off tens of
thousands of employees annually? The answer is the industry's
flexible labor management system--a flexibility widely regarded as
the modus operandi of global capitalism today. "Global "Body
Shopping"" explores how flexibility and uncertainty in the IT labor
market are constructed and sustained through concrete human
actions.
Drawing on in-depth field research in southern India and in
Australia, and folding an ethnography into a political economy
examination, Xiang Biao offers a richly detailed analysis of the
India-based global labor management practice known as "body
shopping." In this practice, a group of consultants--body shops--in
different countries works together to recruit IT workers. Body
shops then farm out workers to clients as project-based labor; and
upon a project's completion they either place the workers with a
different client or "bench" them to await the next placement. Thus,
labor is managed globally to serve volatile capital movement.
Underpinning this practice are unequal socioeconomic relations
on multiple levels. While wealth in the New Economy is created in
an increasingly abstract manner, everyday realities--stock markets
in New York, benched IT workers in Sydney, dowries in Hyderabad,
and women and children in Indian villages--sustain this
flexibility.
General
Imprint: |
Princeton University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
In-Formation |
Release date: |
November 2006 |
First published: |
November 2006 |
Authors: |
Biao Xiang
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 152 x 16mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
208 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-691-11852-9 |
Categories: |
Books >
Business & Economics >
Economics >
Labour economics >
General
|
LSN: |
0-691-11852-3 |
Barcode: |
9780691118529 |
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