Answer the Call: Virtual Migration in Indian Call Centers

Index

Accent neutralization, x, 2, 7, 9–11, 18, 25, 29, 34–35, 38–40, 58–59, 63, 67–68, 79–84, 114, 120, 124, 136, 139–40, 182, 194 Affective labor, 6, 19, 30, 88–91, 95–98, 146–51, 162–64, 170–73, 177–80, 211, 214, 217 Ahmesee, Sara, 68, 76, 79, 84, 213, 216 Alexander, M. Jacqui, 37, 39, 55, 60, 123, 209, 210, 212, 213, 222 America: agents belonging to/in, 2, 71–78, 103, 107–8, 111–12, 130–34; in India, 2, 5, 7–9, 14, 18–19, 22, 26, 34, 45, 47–49, 56, 62–63, 135–36, 142–43, 147–48, 176, 182; transnational , 19, 50, 62, 78–80, 103–5, 111–15, 128, 131, 205, 212, 215, 216 American anxiety around outsourcing, 9, 31, 35, 37–38, 40–41, 44, 47, 49– 50, 60, 104–5, 117–19, 183 American consumers, xi, 9, 20, 43, 51, 54, 67–69, 95–98, 166, 178 American exceptionalism, 44, 49–50, 61, 115, 122 American Jobs, 39, 55 American racism, xi, 9–10, 20, 28, 31, 35, 81, 104–5, 116–19, 119–26, 127– 30, 133, 175, 194 American style/culture, vii, 11, 14, 78–84, 88–89, 136–40, 152, 155 Aneesh, A., 2–3, 21, 70, 198, 215, 220 Anzaldúa, Gloria, 17, 122, 203, 222 Appadurai, Arjun: and citizenship, 131, 219; and migration, 142, 179; and modernity, 214–15; and scapes, 18–19, 70, 74, 80, 203, 215 Axel, Brian, 140–42, 169, 225 Bauman, Zygmunt, 25, 52, 90, 205–6 Bhabha, Homi, 51, 199, 211, 212 Biopolitic, 70–73, 78, 95–96, 215 Biopower, 71–73, 78, 92, 95–96, 99–100, 214, 215 Body shopping, 2, 132, 197 Bordo, Susan, 202 Brown, Wendy, 62, 193 Butler, Judith, 204, 221 Call center: description of inside, ix–xi, 5–6, 7–11 Call center agents: consumerism, 12, 18, 44–47, 139, 155–56, 172, 226, 227; income, 11–14; isolation, loneliness, 77, 86–87; relation to U.S. consumers , 73, 111–12, 123–24, 143–45 Call center industry: attrition in, 15, 187–88, 197, 202; communication Index 239 240 index with U.S., 78–84; family and social relations, 12–13, 22–23, 77–78; gender, 12–13; and Indian culture 2–3, 86–87, 136, 138–41; intergenerational change, 11–12; methodology and interviews with, 25–29; and 9/11, 9, 25, 104, 116, 133, 193–95, 221–22, 228; overview and history of, 7–11; pseudonyms/alias, 9, 26, 67, 72–77, 154; racism, xi, 20, 28, 31, 81–82, 104–5, 116–19; romance in, 64, 97, 162–72; safety, 12–13; secrecy, 9–10, 34–35, 61; time arbitrage, 4–5, 13, 21–25, 92–93, 178; training, ix, 2, 9–11, 15, 17, 25, 32, 63, 74– 75, 79–83, 152–53, 166–67, 181, 187–88, 191–94, 201; and U.S. culture, 70–71, 79, 81–83, 99–100, 136, 138–41, 143–44, 152–53, 155, 166–67, 178–79; violence/rape, 13, 93, 201; virtual racism, 119–27, 129– 30, 133, 175, 194 Call center labor: monotony of, 14–15, 202; time-space compression, 23–24 Checkered geography, 3–4, 44–51, 56–58, 75–76, 137–38, 183–84, 209 Checkered space, 44, 199 Credit cards, 1, 7, 9, 14, 152, 155–59, 182 Destination Bangalore, 37, 42 Diaspora, 137, 138–46, 147–48, 167, 180, 225, 226 Documentary representation: agents as colonial mimicry and ambivalence, 51–52, 199; agents as spectacle, 38–39; authority of white male narrator, 39–40, 63–65; and critiques of outsourcing, 42–43; generational tensions, 61–62; genres of documentary film, 37–44; heterosexuality, 33–34, 37, 39, 54–59, 61–62, 65–66; and Indian women as progress, 37– 38, 55–65; tradition/modernity tensions, 57–60; U.S. anxieties over, 38–40, 46–50; and U.S.–India relations, 38; white male savior in 55–65; whiteness, 41, 55, 63 Embodiment, corporeality, 1, 10–11, 16, 23, 29, 33, 35–37, 51, 68, 81–82, 86, 88, 91–92, 99–100, 120, 139–40, 177, 203, 206, 225 English (language), 8–11, 15, 40, 59, 80–82, 106, 114, 144–45, 148, 151, 165, 187–89, 200, 216, 226, 228 Experience: construction of, 67–70 Fanon, Franz, 81, 84–85, 89, 216 Fernandes, Leela, 138, 224, 226–27 Foucault, Michel: biopower, 70–71, 215–16; total institution, 15, 202 Freeman, Carla...