The uses and abuses of time: globalization and time arbitrage in India's outsourcing industries

Nadeem, Shehzad

doi:10.1111/j.1471-0374.2009.00240.x

Cited by 29 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…They also tend to come with different levels of financial compensation. Whereas a series of tasks determines the working day of an IT worker, a designated number of hours or numerical targets usually determine that of a BPO worker (Nadeem 2009). Another reason for selecting these two categories is that in terms of contractor numbers they are the biggest within their respective groups (see Table 1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A smaller number of studies have looked into workers' engagement with outsourcing services. These studies are mainly about how well-educated workers in (some) developing countries reap benefits from the new employment opportunities provided by either local or foreign offshore service firms, or about the threat the global sourcing trend entails for service workers in advanced economies (Beerepoot and Hendriks 2013;Nadeem 2009). The various other organizational structures or architectures that developed to support the global provision of service activities have so far received much less attention (Bryson 2007).…”

Section: Outsourcing Offshoring and The Emergence Of Microworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Competition in online job marketplaces: towards a global labour market for outsourcing services?

2014

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A new form of service outsourcing has emerged, namely the global online job marketplace for freelance contractors. Such platforms are currently the closest proxy to the idea of a global labour market where everyone competes for jobs regardless of location. In this article, we examine how competition manifests itself on one such global online platform, namely oDesk. We present a comparative analysis of the relative wages and the rewarding of skills and expertise of contractors from selected countries and investigate whether, via labour arbitrage, wage convergence takes place between Western and developing countries. We find that wage convergence is noticeable but experience and skills hardly translate into better remuneration. While service outsourcing (or microwork) via global online marketplaces provides new employment opportunities for freelancers around the world, the intense competition and the inherent restrictions of this type of marketplace limit the financial gains for most contractors.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Outsourcing Offshoring and The Emergence Of Microworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition in online job marketplaces: towards a global labour market for outsourcing services?

2014

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“…Still, these jobs come with liabilities. For example, Nadeem (2009) argues that for workers in call‐centers in India, increased efficiency enjoyed by global corporations on account of off‐shore activities translates into social isolation, health and safety problems due to long hours, and intense work paces and temporal displacement because of adjusting to consumers in different time zones. Other challenges include suppressed wages and diminished collective power, as Pun and Smith (2007) document for the case of internal migrant laborers in China; declining labor standards, as revealed by Bloor and Sampson (2009) in their study of seafarer laborers; and the use of child and forced labor in the agricultural industry (Athreya and Newman 2009; ILO/IPEC 2005).…”

Section: Globalization and Work In The Developing Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work and Neoliberal Globalization: A Polanyian Synthesis

2011

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This article reviews sociological research about economic globalization’s impact on work and labor in developed and developing countries since the 1980s. We find that this period of neoliberal globalization influences work because of intensified activities of multinational corporations (MNCs), financialization of the global economy, and amplified prominence of international organizations, some of which diffuse neoliberal policy scripts while others mobilize a transnational civil society. Research we review generally points to liabilities of neoliberal globalization for workers. To understand these findings, we apply Karl Polanyi’s concepts of fictitious commodities, the self‐regulating market, and the double movement. We propose that, on the one hand, the activities of MNCs, international financial organizations, and many states exemplify pushes for institutional separation of economy and society in effort to institutionalize the idea of a self‐regulating market at a global scale, which increases labor commodification and global inequalities. On the other hand, the activities of social movements, including unions and transnational actors that target globalization’s impact on work, constitute the counter movement at national and global levels resisting marketization and pushing for labor decommodification. The aftermath of the ongoing economic crisis will tell to what extent this countermovement will be successful in generating an alternative to neoliberal globalization, and more protections for workers.

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“…There are other costs to the individual worker. For example, Nadeem (2009) has highlighted how information technology‐based service outsourcing has caused Indian call center workers to develop health problems and social alienation (because of the need to work in night shifts). In a study of the subcontracting work in rural Tamil Nadu in India for global Swedish company Ikea, it is argued that while the availability of contract work has provided some of the rural women with a regular income; such work ultimately reinforces gender roles and the caste system (De Neve 2002).…”

Section: ‘Costs’ and ‘Benefits’ Of Subcontractingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of Subcontracting

Neo

2010

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At its simplest, ‘subcontracting’ occurs when a company outsources some of its operations and functions to others. These contracts include production, service support, and in some cases, research and design. Yet, the nature of subcontracting as a mode of economic production varies dramatically across different industries, spatial scales, places, and impacts. In view of the immense scope of this topic, in this article, I hope to highlight and illuminate a few significant strands and key contentions of the subcontracting literature. First, I will illustrate the varieties and increasing complexity of subcontracting since its early roots in the pre‐industrialization era. Second, I will attempt to explain why firms choose to subcontract. Third, I will also mention briefly other cognate concepts (e.g. ‘trust’ and ‘agglomeration’) which play a role in explaining the nature of subcontracting relationships. Where possible, I will also discuss the extent to which subcontracting relationships are inequitable. Finally, I will use the case study of contract farming in the livestock industry to illustrate the various contentions surrounding subcontracting as a form of economic production and organization.

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The uses and abuses of time: globalization and time arbitrage in India's outsourcing industries

Cited by 29 publications

References 33 publications

Competition in online job marketplaces: towards a global labour market for outsourcing services?

Competition in online job marketplaces: towards a global labour market for outsourcing services?

Work and Neoliberal Globalization: A Polanyian Synthesis

Geographies of Subcontracting

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