, to see if you have full access to this publication.
Book Titles No access
Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace
Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana
Authors:
Publisher:
2012
Summary
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.
Keywords
Search publication
Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2012
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-3784-0
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-3786-4
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
207
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Tables and Photographs No access
Acronyms No access
Gender, Biography, and the Researcher: Locating the “Self” in the Study of “New” Workspaces No access
Chapter One: Gender, Globalization, and “New” Workspaces No access Pages 1 - 10
Chapter Two: The Ethnographic Context: Ghana Fifty Years after Independence No access Pages 11 - 36
Chapter Three: Gender Politics and Women in Ghana: A Short “Herstory” No access Pages 37 - 46
Chapter Four: Gender, Knowledge, and “New” Work No access Pages 47 - 70
Chapter Five: Multi-Sited Ethnography and Hybrid Spaces No access Pages 71 - 94
Chapter Six: Outsourcing as “Glocalization:” Material Practices and Fluid Workspaces No access Pages 95 - 124
Chapter Seven: Literacies of Outsourcing: “Scapes” and “Flows” of “New Work” No access Pages 125 - 152
Chapter Eight: The “New” World of Work: Women and Workplace Literacy Practices No access Pages 153 - 168
