SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF GLOBAL SERVICES IN THE OFFSHORE CALL CENTER: A VIEW FROM THE PHILIPPINES

Abstract

The call center enterprise in the Philippines has attracted considerable attention and debate. Associated with staggering statistics regarding growth, revenues, employment and earnings, the call center enterprise promises to be the new sunshine industry of the Philippines, with projections of as many as two million jobs by the year 2010. Amidst these developments, this study probes this global service production complex, exploring how fragmented operations spanning a global distance impinge on work conditions and experiences of Filipino call center agents. The study situates and substantiates projections and figures associated with the global call center phenomenon by providing a snapshot of global outsourcing from below. It problematizes the notion of global service work in the third party, offshore call center, examining its imperatives and implications, as well as its various dimensions and conditions. Working for almost six months in a call center in Metro Manila, and supplementing my interviews with agents, managers, and trainers from various call centers, I looked into the social production taking place within these sites, highlighting processes and practices of social and symbolic work in the production and exchange of global services within what I call a "global economy of signs and selves." The study shows how the global restructuring of work and production to achieve increased levels of productivity, competitiveness, and profitability resulted in an intensified and dehumanized work regime. It demonstrates the expanding role of the agent in the offshore service platform, emphasizing the social dimensions and human costs of global outsourcing and the relentless pursuit of new efficiencies that underpins it. At the same time, the study illustrates how the Filipino call center agent locates herself within this global terrain, as well as identifies some ways by which agents negotiate and navigate through the structures and imperatives that constitute this global enterprise.