Global "body shopping" : an Indian labor system in the information technology industry
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Global "body shopping" : an Indian labor system in the information technology industry
（In-formation series）
Princeton University Press, c2007
- : hbk
- : pbk.
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-172) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: hbk ISBN 9780691118512
Description
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.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations, Tables, Boxes vii Acronyms ix Prologue: A Stranger's Adventure xiii Acknowledgments xxi Introduction 1 Body Shopping: Brief Overview 4 Ethnicization, Individualization, and Transnationalization 7 Structure of the Book 11 Chapter 1 The Global Niche for Body Shopping 13 "Financial Democracy" and the Virtual Shortage of IT Labor 14 War for IT Talent and Wall of Regulation 19 Chapter 2: Producing "IT People" in Andhra 24 "D-Shops" and "T-Shops" 26 "Have Lands in Andhra, Have a House in Hyderabad, and Have a Job in America" 30 Producing IT People as a Family Business 34 Chapter 3: Selling "Bodies" and Selling Jobs 39 Fee-Paying Workers and Body Shops in Hyderabad 43 India as the Nexus of Global Body Shopping 48 Chapter 4: Business of "Branded Labor" in Sydney 53 "Marketing and Development Are Totally Different Stories" 57 "Only Indians Can Handle Indians" 59 Overlapping Businesses 62 Same Roof, Different Hats 65 Chapter 5: Agent Chains and Benching 70 Differentiated Circles 75 "Indians Are the Most Dangerous Ones!" 77 Overbooking Seats on the Bench 80 Chapter 6: Compliant Bodies? 82 Interlocks between Body Shops and Community Associations 86 Workers as Intermediaries 90 Relations among Workers: Support Yes, Solidarity No 92 The Way Out 97 Chapter 7: The World System of Body Shopping 100 The United States of America: "Mecca for IT People" 102 Global Gateways: Singapore, Malaysia, and the Middle East 104 U.S. Satellites: The Caribbean and Latin America 107 New Frontiers: "Sind Sie Inder?" and "Is There a German Dream?" 108 Ending Remarks The "Indian Triangle" in the Global IT Industry 110 Appendix: Essay The Remembered Fieldwork Sites: Impressions and Images 117 Biographical Index of Informants 129 Notes 149 References 167 Index 173
- Volume
-
: pbk. ISBN 9780691118529
Description
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.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations, Tables, Boxes vii Acronyms ix Prologue: A Stranger's Adventure xiii Acknowledgments xxi Introduction 1 Body Shopping: Brief Overview 4 Ethnicization, Individualization, and Transnationalization 7 Structure of the Book 11 Chapter 1 The Global Niche for Body Shopping 13 "Financial Democracy" and the Virtual Shortage of IT Labor 14 War for IT Talent and Wall of Regulation 19 Chapter 2: Producing "IT People" in Andhra 24 "D-Shops" and "T-Shops" 26 "Have Lands in Andhra, Have a House in Hyderabad, and Have a Job in America" 30 Producing IT People as a Family Business 34 Chapter 3: Selling "Bodies" and Selling Jobs 39 Fee-Paying Workers and Body Shops in Hyderabad 43 India as the Nexus of Global Body Shopping 48 Chapter 4: Business of "Branded Labor" in Sydney 53 "Marketing and Development Are Totally Different Stories" 57 "Only Indians Can Handle Indians" 59 Overlapping Businesses 62 Same Roof, Different Hats 65 Chapter 5: Agent Chains and Benching 70 Differentiated Circles 75 "Indians Are the Most Dangerous Ones!" 77 Overbooking Seats on the Bench 80 Chapter 6: Compliant Bodies? 82 Interlocks between Body Shops and Community Associations 86 Workers as Intermediaries 90 Relations among Workers: Support Yes, Solidarity No 92 The Way Out 97 Chapter 7: The World System of Body Shopping 100 The United States of America: "Mecca for IT People" 102 Global Gateways: Singapore, Malaysia, and the Middle East 104 U.S. Satellites: The Caribbean and Latin America 107 New Frontiers: "Sind Sie Inder?" and "Is There a German Dream?" 108 Ending Remarks The "Indian Triangle" in the Global IT Industry 110 Appendix: Essay The Remembered Fieldwork Sites: Impressions and Images 117 Biographical Index of Informants 129 Notes 149 References 167 Index 173
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