Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace (eBook)

Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana

Beatrice Quarshie Smith (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2012
210 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-0-7391-3786-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace: Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana by Beatrice Quarshie Smith explores the conditions that underlie the outsourcing of US data-processing work in Ghana. Quarshie Smith describes the convergence and interplay of different socio-economic forces, conducting a comparative study of two distinctly different workplaces to reveal significant insights about problems of organizational hierarchy and management-employee relations in the cross-cultural environments of out-sourced business and IT process work.

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Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace: Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana by Beatrice Quarshie Smithexplores the conditions that underlie the outsourcing of US data-processing work in Ghana. Here Beatrice Quarshie Smith describes the convergence and interplay of at least four different socio-economic forces: (1) the digital and satellite technology enabling virtual environments for global outsourced data-processing; (2) the historical development of Ghana as a politically-stable Anglophone society with a relatively strong tradition of public education; (3) the neoliberal economic restructuring policies advanced by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; and (4) the ready availability of women seeking to enter the formal wage economy either to seek independence from their roles within traditional families, or in order to support their families. The author's comparative study of two distinctly different workplaces reveals significant insights about problems of organizational hierarchy and management-employee relations in the cross-cultural environments of out-sourced business and IT process work. Through extensive interviews, the book sheds light on the educational backgrounds, day-to-day struggles, fears, and aspirations of the workers. Quarshie Smith develops this multi-faceted analysis with keen insights into the representational limitations and ethical responsibilities of the researcher. This pioneering study about outsourced data-processing work in West Africa opens up a new area for research and offers a fresh perspective from which to consider outsourcing in other regions of the globe.

Autor

Beatrice Quarshie Smith is an associate professor of Literacy Studies in the Department of Humanities at Michigan Technological University where she is also the Director of the Intensive English as a Second Language Program. Her research interests include explorations of the relationships among globalization, gender, English language literacies and work-related practices.

Inhalt

AcknowledgmentsList of TablesAcronymsPart One: Preface and BackgroundPreface: Gender, Biography, and the Researcher: Locating the “Self” in the Study of “New” WorkspacesChapter 1: Gender and Globalizing Processes“Knowledge” Work and “Development”The Sites, Research Paradigms and the IssuesWorkplace Literacies and “New” WorkOverview of the BookChapter 2: The Ethnographic Context: Ghana Fifty-Five Years after IndependenceThe Nation State: a Political, Social and Economic EvolutionLiteracies, Development and WorkThe Companies, Management Personnel and Research ParticipantsPart Two: Gender in the Globalization DebateChapter 3: Gender Politics and Women in Ghana: A Short “Herstory”Women and EducationWomen and WorkWomen and Work in New TimesConclusion: Transnational Feminist Activism and Cross Border ArticulationsChapter 4: Gender, Knowledge and “New” WorkGender in the Globalization DebateDevelopment, Gender and Macro/Micro-Analyses of GlobalizationFeminisms, Politics, Labels and Discourses on GenderGender and NeoliberalismGender, Technology and Globalizing ProcessesGender, Knowledge, and “New” WorkPart Three: Research Practices Chapter 5: Multi-sited Ethnography and Hybrid SpacesSeeking EntryEmpirical Material CollectionDesigning research PracticesThe Field and Fieldwork in “Ethnographic” research Ethnographic Practices in Hybrid EnvironmentsEthnography and Virtual Work: Other conceptions of “Field”Methodological ChallengesEthical Tensions in Research in Hybrid SettingsResearching Women’s Lives on and off Line Part Four: Literacy Practices in the “New” Workspaces of the Global SouthChapter 6: Outsourcing as “Glocalization:” Material Practices and Fluid Workspaces The “Laborscape:” Continuities and Discontinuities in Geographies The Network and the Transformation of WorkGlocalizing/hybridizing Labor Practices: Shaping Work CulturesWhy Outsourcing?: Work, Gender and Identity in the 21st Century GhanaWork, Desire and the ImaginationChapter 7: Literacies of Outsourcing: “Scapes” and “Flows” of “New” WorkLiteracy, Self-making and the Co-construction of Cyber WorkersRecruiting Cyber Workers: Aims, Values, and Realities of Literacies in UseSituated Literacies: Contexts and PracticesOnline LiteraciesOffline Literacies at WorkLiteracies and the Negotiation of Asymmetrical Power RelationsPart Five: Conclusion—New Workplace Practices for New TimesChapter 8: The “New” World of Work: Women and Workplace Literacy Practices—A Social Practice PerspectiveEducation, Knowledge and WorkImplications of NetworksWork and the Imagination: Of “Scapes” and “Flows”Is Globalized Work Empowering for the Women who Work at CTI and CDN?Policy and Practice: Some ImplicationsContributions of the ProjectUnfinished Business: Workplace Literacy and GlobalizationRepresentation and Legitimization: Nola’s QuestionNOTESAPPENDIX: A: RESEARCH QUESTIONS B: INTERVIEW GUIDEC: LETTER TO PARTICIPANTSD: CONSENT FORME: SAMPLE FLOOR PLANSF: SAMPLE KEY WORDSG: SAMPLE PAY STUBBIBILIOGRAPHYINDEXABOUT THE AUTHOR

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 14.6.2012
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Berufspädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Makroökonomie
• Schlagworte: African Studies • Anthropology • Society and Politics
• ISBN-10: 0-7391-3786-7 / 0739137867
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-3786-4 / 9780739137864