Calling for resistance: The political economy of Indian and Canadian call centre industries

Call centres have in the last three decades come to define the interaction between corporations, governments, and other institutions and their respective customers, citizens, and members. From telemarketing to tele-health services, to credit card assistance, and even emergency response systems, call centres function as a nexus mediating technologically enabled labour practices with the commodification of services. Because of the ubiquitous nature of the call centre in post-industrial capitalism, the banality of these interactions often overshadows the nature of work and labour in this now-global sector. Advances in telecommunication technologies and the globalization of management practices designed to oversee and maintain standardized labour processes have made call centre work an international phenomenon. Simultaneously, these developments have dislocated assumptions about the geographic and spatial seat of work in what is defined here as the new international division of knowledge labour. The offshoring and outsourcing of call centre employment, part of the larger information technology and information technology enabled services sectors, has become a growing practice amongst governments and corporations in their attempts at controlling costs. Leading offshore destinations for call centre work, such as Canada and India, emerged as prominent locations for call centre work for these reasons. While incredible advances in technology have permitted the use of distant and “offshore” labour forces, the grander reshaping of an international political economy of communications has allowed for the acceleration of these processes. New and established labour unions have responded to these changes in the global regimes of work by seeking to organize call centre workers. These efforts have been assisted by a range of forces, not least of which is the condition of work itself, but also attempts by global union federations to build a bridge between international unionism and local organizing campaigns in the Global South and Global North. Through an examination of trade union interventions in the call centre industries located in Canada and India, this dissertation contributes to research on post-industrial employment by using political economy as a juncture between development studies, critical communications, and labour studies.

Disability in the Digital Age: Reconfiguring Access, Inclusion and Equality

There is an abundance of research that examines disability and technology in the context of computers and the Internet, however few have examined disability and mobile devices. Also largely absent from existing literature are the voices of disabled people themselves. This dissertation draws upon science and technology studies (STS) and disability studies to address these gaps by conducting in-depth qualitative research that examines disabled people’s experiences using smartphones and tablets. At its core, this dissertation aims to provide insight on the following: 1) an understanding of how disability is perceived in the digital age and the subjective meanings of access, inclusion and equality; 2) the ways in which mobile devices impact the lived experience of disability; and 3) how perspectives in disability studies and STS can be applied to understand the relationship between the body, disability and technology. The empirical contribution of this research draws from participant diaries and interviews with disabled people, as well as from open-ended questionnaires completed by mobile app developers. The concept of ‘subjectivities of disability’ is introduced to refer to the uniquely personal and individual experience of disability. Findings reveal that mobile device use amongst disabled people redefines their subjectivities of disability through socio-technical interactions whereby disabled people use their devices in ways that are integrated into their everyday lives and positively shapes how they view themselves in relation to their experience of disability. The responses from app developers reveal that there is a place for disability in the mobile market and that disabled people play a key role in making apps accessible. The data suggests that mobile devices facilitate access, inclusion and equality by integrating the body in ways that recognize and accommodate diversity. The results furthermore make it clear that the interaction between disabled people and mobile devices takes on an embodied and social characteristic. This research concludes that both on an individual level and collectively, disabled people are engaging with digital artifacts in ways that promote agency and independence as well as reshaping how disability is experienced and perceived in the digital age.