Subjects, Subjectivity, and Subjectification in Call Center Work

The Doings of Doings

Bibliographic Data

ID2365233
AuthorsDonald J Winiecki (0000-0002-4839-7030, Boise State University, Idaho, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume36
Issue4
Pages351-377
Publication date2007-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891241606293141
OpenAlexW1998475061
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited40

In postindustrial society, paid labor is increasingly characterized as tertiary labor rather than primary or secondary labor and commonly mediated by computer and telecommunication technologies. However, there are few ethnographic studies on the production of the subject and subjectivity in postindustrial workplaces. This article reports a poststructurally informed ethnographic research in four telephone call centers, focusing on how technological and managerial practices are deployed and continuously oriented to in subjectification processes. The result, although "rational" and "real," is shown to be a construction of concerted compliance and secondary adjustments through strategic processes named shadowboxing with data. Implications for the study of subjectivity and subjectification are discussed

Economics · Economy · Epistemology · Ethnography · Linguistics · Post-industrial society · Rationality · Sociology · Subject (documents · Subjectification · Subjectivity · Anthropology · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Emotional Labor in Professions · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies