Space, Place and Global Digital Work (eBook)

Jörg Flecker (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2016
256 Seiten
Palgrave Macmillan UK (Verlag)
978-1-137-48087-3 (ISBN)

Infos

This edited volume seeks to enhance our understanding of the concepts of space and place in the study of digital work. It argues that while digital work is often presented as 'placeless', work always takes place somewhere with a certain degree of local embeddedness. Contributors to this collection address restructuring processes that bring about delocalised digital work and point out limitations to dislocation inherent in the work itself, and the social relations or the physical artefacts involved.

Exploring the dynamics of global value chains and shifts in the international division of labour, this book explores the impact these have on employment and working conditions, workers' agency in shaping and coping with changes in work, and the new competencies needed in virtual organisational environments. Combining different disciplinary perspectives, the volume teases out the spatial aspects of digital work at different scales ranging from team level to that of global production networks.

 

 

Jörg Flecker is a professor of sociology and head of the sociology department at the University of Vienna, Austria. For more than 15 years he has worked on delocalization of ICT-enabled work and restructuring of service value chains.

Inhalt

Contents 6
Notes on Contributors 10
List of Figures 14
List of Tables 16
1: Introduction 17
References 23
Part I: Delocalisation of Digital Work 25
2: The Production of ‘Placelessness’: Digital Service Work in Global Value Chains 26
Introduction 26
The Mobility of Service Jobs and Tasks: Territorial and Organisational Spaces 29
Restructuring of Service Activities 32
Software Development 33
Shared Service Centres and Business Process Outsourcing 35
Crowdsourcing via Online-Platforms 37
Conclusions: Geographies of Service Value Chains 39
References 42
3: New Topologies of Work: Informatisation, Virtualisation and Globalisation in Automotive Engineering 46
Introduction 46
Spatial Dimensions of Informatisation 47
Methodological Approach, Field of Research and Sample Enterprises 50
Data Collection and Sample Enterprises 50
The German Automotive Industry 51
Automotive Engineering 52
Informatisation of Engineering: How Engineering Became Virtual 53
Globalisation of Engineering 55
The Importance of Codification of Knowledge 59
Conclusion 61
References 63
4: Algorithms that Divide and Unite: Delocalisation, Identity and Collective Action in ‘Microwork’ 67
Introduction 67
Background: Dispersing Workers into the Cloud: 70
Detaching Work from Social and Institutional Contexts 70
Production of Placelessness and its Limits 73
Delocalisation, Collective Action, and Identity 75
Research Design: a Tale of Three Platforms 76
Dispersed Work and the Death of Organisational Identities 77
Dispersed Work in Everyday Life 78
Death of Organisational Identities 79
The Working Class Reunites Online? 81
Dispersion and Bargaining Power 81
Workers Reuniting in ‘Virtual Places’ 83
Fragmented Identities, Limited Collective Actions 86
Discussion: a Variable Geometry of Individualised Actors 87
References 91
Part II: The Changing International Division of Labour and Regional Development 95
5: ‘Clouds’ in the Desert? Central and Eastern Europe and Ukraine in the New Division of Labour for Business Services and Software Development 96
Introduction 96
Background and Context of the Research 99
Conceptual Framework 100
Network Dimensions and Impacts 104
Low Costs Versus Knowledge Seeking 104
Place in Network/Value Chain 106
Temporality 107
Cognitive Dimensions and Impacts 107
Institutional Dimensions and Impacts 110
Discussion and Conclusions 112
References 114
6: Missing Links in Service Value Chain Analysis—Space, Identity and Inequality in Brazilian Call Centres 117
Introduction 117
Globalisation, Financialisation and the Emergence of the Brazilian Call Centre Industry 120
The Emergence of Call Centres in Brazil 121
Sectoral Logics and Changing Service Relations 123
Territorial Proximity and Regional Shifts 125
The (Neo-Taylorist) Labour Process and Social Segmentation 126
Neo-Taylorist Work Organisation and Control of Immaterial Service Work 127
Social Relations in Call Centres—Worker Profiles and Intersecting Inequalities 129
The Profile of Outsourced Call Centre Agents 130
Images, Identities and Persisting Inequalities 132
Conclusion 133
References 134
7: Local Development Policies, the Labour Market and the Dynamics of Virtual Value Chains: the Case of the IT Sector in the Municipality of Londrina, Brazil 138
Introduction 138
Global Value Chains and the Entrepreneurial Approach to Local Economic Development 140
Chains of Precarisation: the Case of Local Productive Arrangements (LPAs) for IT in Londrina 143
Results and Outcomes of Entrepreneurial Initiatives in Londrina 148
Linkages 148
Employment and Wages 149
Education, Age and Turnover of Employees 149
Conclusion 153
References 157
8: Creating Space: The Role of the State in the Indian IT-Related Offshoring Sector 161
Introduction 161
Global Production Networks and the State 163
Facilitating Spatial Development: the Role of the Indian State 165
The State and the Industrial Relations Space 169
Conclusion 173
References 174
Part III: Dynamics of Virtual Organisation and Mediatised Work 179
9: ‘My Company is Invisible’—Generating Trust in the Context of Placelessness, Precarity and Invisibility in Virtual Work 180
Introduction 180
Placelessness, Precarity and Invisibility in Virtual Work 181
Theoretical Framework—Levels of Participation 185
Methodology—What Does Lisa Offer as a Case? 188
Findings: Places, Placelessness and Coping Strategies 190
The Places of Lisa’s Virtual Work 190
Consequences of Placelessness: Precarity and Invisibility 193
Creating a Sense of Trust: Coping Strategies 196
Discussion and Conclusion 199
References 204
10: Towards a Model of Collective Competences for Globally Distributed Collaborations 209
Introduction 209
Towards a Process Framework for Assessing Collective Competences 212
Methods 215
Results 217
Identified Collective Competences for Ideation Cycles 219
Identified Competences for Decision Making Cycles 221
Identified Collective Competences for  Implementation Cycles 223
Discussion 225
References 229
11: Spatial Phenomena of Mediatised Work 234
Introduction 234
Theoretical Concepts Applicable to the Relation between Media and Space 235
Methods 236
Transformation of Space 240
Flexibilisation of the Workspace 240
Virtual Extension of the Workspace 242
Reduction of Distances 243
New Forms of Presence 245
Effects of the Spatial Phenomena on the Individual 247
Conclusion 250
References 251
Index 253

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.7.2016
• Reihe/Serie: Dynamics of Virtual Work
• Reihe/Serie: Dynamics of Virtual Work
• Zusatzinfo: XV, 256 p. 17 illus., 13 illus. in color.
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Makrosoziologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Mikrosoziologie
• Schlagworte: delocalization • Environment • Globalization • Global Production Networks • Identity • Information Technology • Information Technology (IT) • Internet • Labor Market • labour theory • Missing link • Nation • online work • organization • Service • Society • Sociology • Spatial Dynamics • Technology • Telework • Trust • Value Chains • Virtual Work • work organisation
• ISBN-10: 1-137-48087-4 / 1137480874
• ISBN-13: 978-1-137-48087-3 / 9781137480873