Invisible Bodies and Disembodied Voices? Identity Work, the Body and Embodiment in Transnational Service Work
无形的身体和非实体的声音？跨国服务工作中的身份工作、身体和体现

Introduction 导言

That global capitalism has ordered labour processes in transnational service work in specific embodied ways is well documented. Call centre work has been described as feminized (Basi, 2009; Patel, 2012) and promoting soft masculinities (Rajan-Rankin, 2016a), racialized (Mirchandani, 2005; Poster, 2002), perpetuating an international division of labour (Taylor et al., 2005; Russell and Thite, 2008) and contributing to the informalization of third world workers (Ghosh, 2002; Mitter et al. 2004). Tensions exist however between the critical need to examine global inequalities in relation to bodies, and the dichotomized West-Rest thinking that can emerge from this analysis. As Murphy (2011, p. 418) notes, the impact of globalization on labour processes in the South have often been viewed as ‘uni-directional and destructive to the developing country's subaltern authentic identity . . . their citizens held in a permanent situation of subservience within the global economy'. While this may serve as an effective counter-point to overt neoliberal arguments; such analysis can overlook possibilities of hybridization and co-mingling of traditional and new forms of modernity and identity constructions. ‘Third world narratives’ can hence, mask the possibility of agentic futures for workers, or at least the embodied processes by which they negotiate spaces of surveillance, control and agency (see Basi, 2009). While my intent is not to undermine the detrimental effects of global inequalities on workers in the global South, I do want to highlight, that ‘West-Rest’ thinking may oversimplify often more complex processes of identity construction and a more nuanced reading may be necessary.
全球资本主义以特定的体现方式安排跨国服务工作中的劳动过程，这一点有据可查。呼叫中心工作被描述为女性化（Basi，2009 年；Patel，2012 年）和促进软男子气概（Rajan-Rankin，2016 年 a）、种族化（Mirchandani，2005 年；Poster，2002 年）、使国际分工永久化（Taylor 等人，2005 年；Russell 和 Thite，2008 年）以及助长第三世界工人的非正规化（Ghosh，2002 年；Mitter 等人，2004 年）。然而，在审查与身体相关的全球不平等现象的关键需求与这种分析可能产生的西方-西方二分法思维之间存在着紧张关系。正如墨菲（2011 年，第 418 页）所指出的，全球化对南方劳动过程的影响通常被视为 "单向的，对发展中国家的次等真实身份具有破坏性......其公民在全球经济中永远处于从属地位"。 虽然这可能是对公开的新自由主义论点的有效反驳，但这种分析可能会忽视传统和新形式的现代性和身份建构的混合和共存的可能性。因此，"第三世界叙事 "可能会掩盖工人代理未来的可能性，或至少掩盖他们谈判监视、控制和代理空间的体现过程（见 Basi，2009 年）。虽然我无意贬低全球不平等对全球南方工人的有害影响，但我确实想强调，"西方-西方 "思维可能会过度简化往往更为复杂的身份建构过程，因此可能有必要进行更为细致入微的解读。

An examination of Indian call centres provides a novel lens for locating workers' and clients' bodies and their embodied practices within a global context. In particular, it challenges some of the assumptions around bodies and intimate relations at work, the topic of the special issue, and considers how these processes play out when workers and clients are not in close proximity. Voice-based call centre work uses automated dialling systems to connect call agents and western clients; as a result, the worker is invisible to the client, except for their voice. Techno-rationalistic descriptions of call centre labour processes have described call agents as ‘cybertariats’ (Huws, 2003) and in my recent work I have argued that these processes cause the labouring body to disappear from the worker's gaze (Rajan-Rankin, 2016b). However, this apparent invisibility needs further deliberation. While the call worker may be invisible to the western client (and vice versa), conversely, the call worker's body is highly visible as a subject for surveillance and a target of discipline on the shop floor. Thus, assumptions around the apparent invisibility of call centre work (to clients) needs to be disentangled from the idea that call work is disembodied. In part this idea of disembodiment has been perpetuated by spatial and temporal distance between the call agent and the western client, and media representations (Mirchandani, 2015). It would be more precise to state, that call centres have been subject to a specific kind of embodied analysis, one that is characterized by surveillance and control.
对印度呼叫中心的研究为在全球背景下定位工人和客户的身体及其身体实践提供了一个新的视角。特别是，它对特刊的主题--工作中的身体和亲密关系--的一些假设提出了挑战，并探讨了当工人和客户不在近距离时，这些过程是如何进行的。基于语音的呼叫中心工作使用自动拨号系统连接呼叫代理和西方客户；因此，除了声音之外，客户看不到工作人员。对呼叫中心劳动过程的技术理性描述将呼叫座席人员描述为 "网络人"（Cybertariats）（Huws，2003），而我在最近的作品中认为，这些过程导致劳动身体从工人的视线中消失（Rajan-Rankin，2016b）。然而，这种表面上的隐匿性还需要进一步斟酌。对西方客户而言，呼叫中心工人可能是隐形的（反之亦然），但反过来说，呼叫中心工人的身体作为监控对象和车间纪律的目标却是高度可见的。 因此，关于呼叫中心工作（对客户而言）明显不可见性的假设需要与呼叫工作是非实体化的观点相分离。在某种程度上，呼叫代理与西方客户之间的时空距离以及媒体的表述（Mirchandani，2015 年）延续了这种非实体化的观念。更准确的说法是，呼叫中心一直受到一种特定的实体分析，这种分析的特点是监视和控制。

Indeed, the physical body of call centre workers has been very visible in research, as a subject of fragility, substance misuse, burn-out and fatigue (Jeyepal et al., 2015; Noranho and D'Cruz, 2009). Alternately female call workers bodies have come into the limelight in sensational news coverage on sexual assault (BBC, 2014) and as ‘risky bodies’ in nightshift work (Patel, 2010). Very few studies have engaged in an embodied understanding of call centre work (but see Basi, 2009; Pal and Buzannell, 2008; and Mirchandani, 2015) that goes beyond the physical body and explores the agentic and relational body.
事实上，呼叫中心工作人员的身体在研究中非常明显，是脆弱、药物滥用、倦怠和疲劳的主题（Jeyepal 等人，2015 年；Noranho 和 D'Cruz，2009 年）。另外，女性应召工作者的身体在有关性侵犯的轰动性新闻报道中（BBC，2014 年），以及作为夜班工作中的 "危险身体"（Patel，2010 年），成为人们关注的焦点。很少有研究对呼叫中心工作进行身体理解（但见 Basi，2009 年；Pal 和 Buzannell，2008 年；Mirchandani，2015 年），这些研究超越了身体，探讨了代理和关系身体。

In order to enflesh the fading body in call centre research, this study seeks to examine a specific embodied practice of ‘identity work’ in which call agents adopt westernized identities to imply proximity to the western client base. While identity work has been mainly analysed as a form of aesthetic labour (Nath, 2011); emotional labour (Mirchandani, 2012) and impression management (Goffman, 1959), few studies have examined this form of work as embodied (but see Mirchandani, 2015). By focussing on the bodily aspects of identity work, especially in relation to work on one's own body, and imagining others' bodies, this article extends current thinking on identity work in call centres. Drawing on qualitative data from an ethnographic study of two global outsourcing companies in India, this paper examines the following research aims: (1) the ways in which labour processes in transnational call centres are spatially and temporally structured and its influence on workers' experiences of visibility/invisibility; (2) exploring how call centre organizations regulate workers' bodies, accents and identities in call centre work and ways in which workers respond, resist and subvert the same; (3) considering the processes by which call agents construct corporeal imaginaries about western clients (and their own identities) in this regard.
为了在呼叫中心研究中充实正在消逝的身体，本研究试图考察 "身份工作 "这一特定的体现性实践，在这一实践中，呼叫中心的座席人员采用西方化的身份，以表示接近西方客户群。身份工作主要被分析为审美劳动（Nath，2011 年）、情感劳动（Mirchandani，2012 年）和印象管理（Goffman，1959 年）的一种形式，但很少有研究对这种体现性工作形式进行研究（但见 Mirchandani，2015 年）。通过关注身份工作的身体方面，特别是与自己身体和想象他人身体有关的工作，本文扩展了当前对呼叫中心身份工作的思考。 本文利用对印度两家全球外包公司进行人种学研究获得的定性数据，探讨了以下研究目标：(1) 跨国呼叫中心的劳动过程在空间和时间上的结构方式及其对工人的可见性/不可见性体验的影响；(2) 探讨呼叫中心组织如何规范工人在呼叫中心工作中的身体、口音和身份，以及工人如何回应、抵制和颠覆这些规范；(3) 考虑呼叫代理在这方面构建关于西方客户（及其自身身份）的身体想象的过程。

The article is structured into four main sections. First, I examine the emerging literature on identity management work in call centres and review the few studies conducted on these phenomena. I then consider the ways in which bodies can be illuminated in call centre research by drawing on the sociology of body literature, especially concepts of body work (Wolkowitz, 2006; Gimlin, 2007), body regulation, training and body pedagogics (Shilling and Mellor, 2007; Turner, 1983; Wainwright et al., 2011) and corporeal imaginaries (McDowell et al., 2007). My ethnographic research design and data analysis strategies are outlined in the next section along with a brief review of the two call centre firms. Findings from the qualitative study are presented in the third section and are organized around themes of (in)visibility of workers' bodies; body regulation and training; gendered bodies and corporeal imaginaries. Using these vivid narrative accounts the analysis highlights the ways in which call workers' bodies are not just passive subjects of discipline, but adopt embodied strategies to assert their sense of self as well. Tentative conclusions are presented in the final section, including new avenues for further research.
本文分为四个主要部分。首先，我研究了有关呼叫中心身份管理工作的新兴文献，并回顾了有关这些现象的少数研究。然后，我借鉴身体社会学文献，特别是身体工作（Wolkowitz，2006 年；Gimlin，2007 年）、身体调节、培训和身体教育学（Shilling 和 Mellor，2007 年；Turner，1983 年；Wainwright 等人，2011 年）以及身体想象（McDowell 等人，2007 年）等概念，探讨了在呼叫中心研究中阐明身体的方法。下一节将概述我的人种学研究设计和数据分析策略，并简要回顾两家呼叫中心公司。第三部分介绍了定性研究的结果，这些结果围绕着以下主题展开：工人身体的（不）可见性；身体调节和培训；性别化身体和肉体想象。通过这些生动的叙述，分析强调了呼叫中心工作人员的身体不仅是被动的纪律主体，而且还采用了体现性策略来维护其自我意识。 最后一节提出了初步结论，包括进一步研究的新途径。

Identity work, the body and embodiment
身份工作、身体和体现

A peculiarity of transnational service work is the spatial and temporal distance between the call worker and western client living in another time-zone. To convince western clients that they are receiving a ‘local service’, risk-averse outsourcing companies require Indian call agents to mask their cultural identity in order to appear proximal to the western client base. This involves a complex set of embodied practices including voice and accent training (removal of mother tongue influence and developing a generic Americanized accent), locational masking (to keep up appearances that the service is provided in the same location as the client base), deceptive mimicry (ability to hold short conversations that include references to the customers' cultural context) and visualization techniques used to imagine the western client and their context. Identity work is not static, but occurs on a continuum from complete westernization, to partial masking, involving adopting an American accent, but maintaining Indian names. A growing sector of IT-enabled services has been dedicated to ‘soft skills training’ and organizational mandates around ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ identity management are mostly dictated by the western outsourcing company.
跨国服务工作的一个特点是呼叫工作者与生活在另一个时区的西方客户之间的时空距离。为了让西方客户相信他们接受的是 "本地服务"，规避风险的外包公司要求印度呼叫代理掩盖自己的文化身份，以便看起来更接近西方客户群。这涉及一系列复杂的具体做法，包括语音和口音训练（消除母语影响，发展通用的美国化口音）、地点掩饰（保持服务与客户群在同一地点提供的假象）、欺骗性模仿（进行简短对话的能力，包括提及客户的文化背景）以及用于想象西方客户及其背景的可视化技术。身份工作不是一成不变的，而是一个连续的过程，从完全西化到部分掩饰，包括使用美国口音，但保留印度姓名。 越来越多的 IT 化服务致力于 "软技能培训"，而围绕 "硬 "或 "软 "身份管理的组织任务大多由西方外包公司决定。

There are various explanations for identity work and theorization around this and other forms of global work are still nascent. Poster (2007) described ‘national identity management' as a process by which employees assume different national identities as part of the job. She argues that racialism is still seen by employers as a legitimate requirement in worker recruitment and retention in call centres (Poster, 2002). This research was extended by Nath (2011) to highlight ways in which call centre workers themselves use identity management strategies to manage stigma associated with the Indian identity. Nationality, rather than phenotype, is viewed as the basis of racially instigated customer abuse, so identity masking has its origins in colonial hierarchies and their influence on current representation of the relations between the third world worker and the western client.
关于身份工作有多种解释，围绕身份工作和其他形式的全球工作的理论研究仍处于起步阶段。Poster （2007 年）将 "国家身份管理 "描述为员工在工作中承担不同国家身份的过程。她认为，在呼叫中心招聘和留住员工的过程中，雇主仍将种族歧视视为一项合法要求（Poster，2002 年）。Nath （2011 年）对这一研究进行了延伸，强调了呼叫中心员工自身使用身份管理策略来管理与印度身份相关的污名的方式。国籍，而不是表型，被视为种族煽动的客户虐待的基础，因此身份掩饰起源于殖民等级制度及其对当前第三世界工人与西方客户之间关系的影响。

Raghuram (2011) uses Goffman's (1959) ideas of ‘impression management’ to explain the processes by which call centre workers regulate their identity. While this could be true of all call centre workers, the crucial difference is that for Indian workers privileging ‘western identities’ is an essential part of impression management. Raghuram argues that these strategies enable workers to be ‘self-referencing’ (where call agents model their behaviours based on the perceived accents, behaviours and identity representations of western clients) by using context-appropriate behaviours to provide legitimacy and coherence to the job role. While this form of impression management puts the perceived audience (western clients) in a position of power; the accents, behaviours and identity performances themselves are not viewed by Raghuram to be particularly gendered or racialized.
拉古拉姆（2011 年）使用戈夫曼（1959 年）的 "印象管理 "思想来解释呼叫中心工作人员调节其身份的过程。虽然所有呼叫中心工作人员都可以这样做，但关键的区别在于，对印度工人而言，"西方身份 "是印象管理的一个重要组成部分。拉古拉姆认为，这些策略使工作人员能够 "自我参照"（即呼叫中心工作人员根据西方客户的口音、行为和身份表征来塑造自己的行为），通过使用与环境相适应的行为来为工作角色提供合法性和一致性。虽然这种印象管理形式将被感知的受众（西方客户）置于权力地位，但 Raghuram 认为口音、行为和身份表现本身并不特别具有性别或种族色彩。

A rich scholarship exists on the sociology of the body (Leder, 1990; Shilling, 2012; Williams and Bendelow, 1998; Wolkowitz, 2006), although it has had a somewhat late arrival in organizational studies (Gimlin, 2007). To bring the bodies of call centre workers and clients into our analyses we need to connect up different levels of analyses. The concept of ‘body work’ is helpful in understanding how bodies, embodiment and corporeality are involved in identity work at the micro-level. Although Wolkowitz (2006) defines body work as work on other people's bodies through physical contact, other definitions also exist. McDowell (2009) usefully distinguishes between ‘high-touch’ and ‘low-touch’ work based on variations in the proximity between workers' and client's bodies. Gimlin (2007) also offers a useful categorization of three additional different types of body work, which again provides more scope for identifying the body work undertaken by call centre workers. These are (1) work performed on one's own body, (2) management of emotional display and (3) production and modification of bodies through work. In this sense, identity work in call centres can be seen as a form of body work involving the first two categories identified in Gimlin's taxonomy; as regulation of one's own body through dress, posture, gestures, voice and accent and even the body's diurnal rhythms (Nath, 2011; Mirchandani, 2012; Raghuram, 2011); and also through suppressing and manipulating emotional display by ‘smiling down the phone’ (Jaarsveld et al., 2013; Hochschild, 1983).
有关身体社会学的研究成果丰富（Leder, 1990; Shilling, 2012; Williams and Bendelow, 1998; Wolkowitz, 2006），尽管其进入组织研究领域的时间稍晚（Gimlin, 2007）。为了将呼叫中心工作人员和客户的身体纳入我们的分析，我们需要将不同层次的分析联系起来。身体工作 "的概念有助于理解身体、体现和肉体是如何在微观层面上参与身份认同工作的。沃尔科维茨（2006 年）将 "身体工作 "定义为通过身体接触对他人身体所做的工作，但也有其他定义。麦克道尔（McDowell）（2009 年）根据工作者和客户身体之间的接近程度的不同，对 "高接触 "和 "低接触 "工作进行了有益的区分。Gimlin （2007 年）还对另外三种不同类型的身体工作进行了有用的分类，这也为识别呼叫中心工作人员所从事的身体工作提供了更多的空间。这三种类型分别是：(1) 在自己身体上进行的工作；(2) 情绪展示的管理；(3) 通过工作制造和改变身体。 从这个意义上讲，呼叫中心的身份认同工作可被视为一种身体工作，涉及 Gimlin 分类法中确定的前两个类别；通过着装、姿势、手势、声音和口音，甚至身体的昼夜节律来调节自己的身体（Nath，2011；Mirchandani，2012；Raghuram，2011）；以及通过 "对着电话微笑 "来抑制和操纵情绪表现（Jaarsveld 等人，2013；Hochschild，1983）。

Training plays a key role in this form of body work performed by call centre workers. Call agents undergo rigorous training, especially on voice and accent modulation, learning to flatten their vowels and adopt Americanized accents, and learn about American culture (Poster, 2007). The notion of ‘body regulation’ can help to explain this process. Turner (1983) extends Foucault's work by exploring the role of institutions in exerting social control and power over individual desires and passions. Thus, identity management work involves Indian call workers bending to organizational preference for westernized identities. Training can also be a transformative space. Wainwright et al.'s (2011, p. 221) research on body training among mothers performing body work in beauty, health and social care sectors describes training spaces ‘as transitional and liminal – conceptual and physical spaces of “in-betweenness” – in which body work is taught and learnt'. In the context of call centre work, call agents occupy a transitional and liminal space, shifting between Indian non-work roles and westernized work roles, interpreting and projecting specific embodied identities and receiving feedback from western clients through body in a recursive loop. 

Like Wainwright et al. (2011), these authors view body training to result in embodied changes. However, key to their conception of body pedagogics is the concept of body practice as ‘culture’ that is, normative and acceptable forms of corporeal and body expression that is transmitted across generations. In this sense, identity work can be conceptualized not only as body training, but also a pedagogical form of cultural assimilation, of consuming what is meant to be ‘western’, reproducing it through specific corporeal techniques, and experiencing the embodied changes of adopting and living that westernized pseudo-identity.
与温赖特等人（2011 年）一样，这些作者也认为身体训练会带来身体上的变化。然而，他们的身体教育学概念的关键在于身体练习作为 "文化 "的概念，即世代相传的规范和可接受的身体和身体表达形式。从这个意义上说，身份认同工作不仅可以被概念化为身体训练，也可以被概念化为一种文化同化的教学形式，即消费 "西方 "的东西，通过特定的身体技术将其再现，并体验采用和生活这种西方化的伪身份所带来的身体变化。

These embodied changes involve specific techniques called ‘visualization practices’ where call agents watch training videos of American people and life-styles to try and ‘imagine’ the western client. While visualization techniques have been identified in many studies (Nath, 2011; Raghuram, 2011) it has not been analysed as an embodied strategy. Mirchandani (2015) comes close in her description of Indian call workers ‘reading bodies’ of the idealized westernized worker, but does not go far enough in considering this to be a bodily practice. I use the term ‘corporeal imaginaries’ to describe the embodied processes by which call centre workers visualize and enflesh the western client (and themselves) through the dual process of ‘enchantment’ and ‘othering’. At one level, idealization and fantasy about specific corporeal characteristics (and by extension bodies which embody them) are used as part of the ‘enchantment’ of the service (McDowell et al., 2007). For example, much like the call centre workers, telephone sex workers need to perform an ‘authentic role’ of creating a comforting and inviting space to perform the (phone) sex interaction (Wolkowitz et al., 2013). Both bring the bodily, and involve some level of denial of personal/ cultural identity. However, the stigma of working with a client under an assumed pseudonym also brings with it the process of othering and potential for rejection if the assumed identity performance falters.
这些体现性变化涉及被称为 "可视化实践 "的特定技术，即呼叫代理观看美国人和生活方式的培训视频，尝试 "想象 "西方客户。虽然许多研究（Nath, 2011; Raghuram, 2011）都指出了可视化技术，但尚未将其作为一种体现策略进行分析。米尔昌达尼（Mirchandani，2015 年）在描述印度应召工作者 "阅读 "西方理想化工作者的 "身体 "时接近了这一点，但在将其视为身体实践方面还不够深入。我使用 "肉体想象 "一词来描述呼叫中心工作人员通过 "陶醉 "和 "他化 "的双重过程将西方客户（以及他们自己）形象化和肉体化的体现过程。在一个层面上，对特定肉体特征（以及体现这些特征的身体）的理想化和幻想被用作服务 "魅力 "的一部分（麦克道尔等人，2007 年）。例如，与呼叫中心工作人员一样，电话性工作者也需要扮演一个 "真实的角色"，创造一个舒适宜人的空间来进行（电话）性互动（Wolkowitz 等人，2013 年）。 两者都会带来身体上的伤害，并在某种程度上涉及对个人/文化身份的否认。然而，用假名与客户合作的耻辱感也带来了他者化的过程，如果假定的身份表现不佳，就有可能遭到拒绝。

Beyond individual practices of body disciplining and training, identity work can also be understood as an embodied practice of self-presentation in the global context. Indian call workers actively engage in cosmopolitan culture, frequent malls and are conscious of fashion and designer labels (Murphy, 2011). Women actively participate as agents in the construction of new feminized identities. For instance, Freeman's (2000) study of Caribbean call centre women workers emphasized the ways in which dress, hair and high heels are embodied practices used to portray a professional image, in otherwise low-paid, low-status professions. Basi (2009) similarly describes a sub-culture in call centres where women can modernize their identities (Bhenji Turned Mod or ‘sister becomes a modern woman’). Sexual freedoms and increased mobility are also part of the call centre sub-culture, where young men and women are able to work in mixed company in night-time hours (Pal and Buzzanell, 2008), although night-time working has also been linked with risk of sexual violence and vulnerability (Patel, 2012).
除了个人的身体训练和培训实践外，身份工作还可以被理解为在全球背景下自我展示的体现性实践。印度应召女郎积极参与国际文化，经常逛商场，关注时尚和设计师品牌（Murphy，2011 年）。女性积极参与新女性化身份的构建。例如，弗里曼（Freeman，2000 年）对加勒比地区呼叫中心女工的研究强调，在收入低、地位低的职业中，着装、发型和高跟鞋是塑造专业形象的体现方式。Basi （2009 年）同样描述了呼叫中心的一种亚文化，在这种亚文化中，女性可以将自己的身份现代化（Bhenji Turned Mod 或 "姐姐成为现代女性"）。性自由和流动性的增加也是呼叫中心亚文化的一部分，在那里，年轻男女可以在夜间混杂在一起工作（Pal 和 Buzzanell，2008 年），尽管夜间工作也与性暴力风险和脆弱性有关（Patel，2012 年）。

Habitus and embodied self-styling may be one aspect of the call centre worker's experience, but we must also locate their work role within the context of wider global inequalities. Thus, in order to understand the disciplining of body work in Indian call centres and how workers develop forms of embodied agency we also have to pay particular attention to the global relations within which these employees are located. Call centres still operate as a pattern of transnational service work which is predicated on North-South asymmetry in trade relations. The uni-directional flow of global outsourcing processes from the North to the South indicates specific power imbalances in trade, and these are mirrored in racialized encounters between western clients and Indian call workers (Poster, 2002). As McDowell et al. (2007) observes, corporeal characteristics are often used to determine recruitment and job allocation within organizational hierarchies on gender, race and class lines. In Indian call centres, good quality English is a pre-requisite for recruitment into global call centres, which by extension includes mainly middle-class workers who could afford a private school education where English is taught as a second language (Murphy, 2011). While call centre workers are paid relatively well in relation to the national wage, in international comparison with customer service representatives in the west, their wages are relatively low. There is a dumping of low-end service work to outsourced companies and even if Indian workers are able to adopt creative techniques to deal with the confines of their identity work role, they still operate within these frames of global inequality. These global connections are further explored in my ethnographic study.
习惯和具身的自我风格可能是呼叫中心工作人员经历的一个方面，但我们还必须将他们的工作角色定位在更广泛的全球不平等背景下。因此，为了理解印度呼叫中心对身体工作的约束，以及工人如何发展身体代理形式，我们还必须特别关注这些员工所处的全球关系。呼叫中心仍然是一种跨国服务工作模式，其前提是南北贸易关系的不对称。从北方到南方的全球外包流程的单向流动表明了贸易中特定的权力不平衡，这些不平衡反映在西方客户与印度呼叫工人之间的种族化接触中（Poster，2002 年）。正如 McDowell 等人（2007 年）所观察到的那样，身体特征往往被用来决定组织内部按性别、种族和阶级划分的招聘和工作分配。 在印度的呼叫中心，良好的英语素质是全球呼叫中心招聘的先决条件，其中主要包括中产阶级工人，他们有能力在私立学校接受英语作为第二语言的教育（Murphy，2011 年）。虽然呼叫中心员工的工资相对于全国工资水平较高，但与西方国家的客户服务代表相比，他们的工资相对较低。低端服务工作被外包公司所取代，即使印度工人能够采用创造性的技术来应对其身份工作角色的限制，他们仍然在全球不平等的框架内工作。我的人种学研究将进一步探讨这些全球联系。

Research design and data analysis
研究设计和数据分析

This study draws on a two-year ethnographic study of two global call centres in India, one in the National Capital Region (NCR) and one in Hyderabad, in south India. Both firms are ranked in the top 20 global business process outsourcing companies in India and provided customer service to United States (US) markets. Firm-level differences added a comparative dimension to the study. The firm in NCR is a large global outsourcing firm dealing with financial data and debt collection. It has a long history of outsourcing and most client packages require only partial masking of workers' Indian identity. In contrast, the firm in Hyderabad is relatively new at global outsourcing, and has a domestic call centre arm (though we did not recruit informants from this part of the service). The global outsourcing process deals mainly with sales and beauty and fitness products. Full cultural immersion is often requested from the outsourcing firms with complete masking of cultural identities. The global process in both call centres involved working night shifts, which generally ran from 8pm to 4am (Indian Standard Time).
本研究对印度的两家全球性呼叫中心进行了为期两年的人种学研究，一家位于印度国家首都地区（NCR），另一家位于印度南部的海得拉巴。这两家公司都是印度排名前 20 位的全球业务流程外包公司，为美国市场提供客户服务。公司层面的差异为研究增加了一个比较维度。印度北部地区的公司是一家处理金融数据和债务追收的大型全球性外包公司。该公司的外包历史悠久，大多数客户套餐只要求部分掩盖工人的印度身份。相比之下，海得拉巴的公司在全球外包方面相对较新，并且有一个国内呼叫中心部门（尽管我们没有从这部分服务中招募信息提供者）。全球外包流程主要涉及销售、美容和健身产品。外包公司往往要求受访者完全沉浸在文化氛围中，完全掩盖其文化身份。两个呼叫中心的全球流程都需要上夜班，一般从晚上 8 点到凌晨 4 点（印度标准时间）。

Qualitative interviews were conducted with 38 people across both sites, including 22 customer service representatives (CSRs) (57 per cent), 8 process trainers (22 per cent), 7 HR managers (19 per cent) and 1 policy expert (2 per cent). Thirteen out of the 38 respondents were female, while 25 were men, a gender ratio that is consistent with the global Business Process Management (BPM) sector (NASSCOM, 2015). The average age of customer service representatives was 24.9 years, while process trainers and managers were older (averaging 34 years). The average length of employment for CSRs was 19 months, while managers (4.5 years) and trainers (5 years) had longer job durations.
对两个站点的 38 名人员进行了定性访谈，其中包括 22 名客户服务代表（CSR）（57%）、8 名流程培训师（22%）、7 名人力资源经理（19%）和 1 名政策专家（2%）。38 名受访者中有 13 名女性，25 名男性，性别比例与全球业务流程管理 (BPM) 行业一致（NASSCOM，2015 年）。客户服务代表的平均年龄为 24.9 岁，而流程培训师和经理的平均年龄较大（平均 34 岁）。客服代表的平均工作时间为 19 个月，而经理（4.5 年）和培训师（5 年）的工作时间更长。

The research team included the author, who was responsible for gaining access to the call centre firms through industry contacts and obtaining ethical approval from Brunel University London. She worked with Indian PhD students who collected data at the two sites between 2010 and 2012 using ethnographic approaches. The author's and the students' data collection included participant observation on the shop floor; informal meetings with CSRs in chai khanas (tea shacks) before their shifts; and formal interviews with team leads, managers and accent trainers within the office environment. In addition, the author and research assistants kept field diaries which attempted to capture the flavour of ‘being there’ in the call centre environment. Managers, trainers and CSRs were recruited using snowballing techniques. The interviews covered a range of topics, including CSRs' journeys into call centre work, their experiences of training and their impressions of the western clients they served. Interview questions often used ‘feeling words’ such as ‘What does it feel like to deal with an irate customer?’ or ‘being words’ such as ‘How did your body feel when you were working through the night shift?’ All the qualitative interviews lasted about one hour and were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Colloquial terms in ‘Hinglish’ (a hybrid of Hindi and English) were maintained and annotated explanations provided within the written transcripts.
研究团队包括作者，她负责通过行业关系进入呼叫中心公司，并获得伦敦布鲁内尔大学的伦理批准。她与印度博士生合作，在 2010 年至 2012 年期间采用人种学方法在两个地点收集数据。作者和学生的数据收集工作包括在车间进行参与式观察；在轮班前与企业社会责任人员在茶馆（chai khanas）进行非正式会面；以及在办公环境中与团队领导、经理和口音培训师进行正式访谈。此外，作者和研究助理还撰写了实地日记，试图捕捉呼叫中心环境中的 "身临其境 "的感觉。采用 "滚雪球 "技术招募了经理、培训师和 CSR。访谈涉及一系列主题，包括企业社会责任人员进入呼叫中心工作的历程、他们的培训经历以及他们对所服务的西方客户的印象。访谈问题经常使用 "感觉词"，如 "与恼怒的客户打交道是什么感觉？所有定性访谈持续了约一个小时，并进行了数字录音和逐字记录。书面记录中保留了 "Hinglish"（印地语和英语的混合体）中的口语词汇，并提供了注释解释。

A specific analytical challenge in this study was finding ways to ‘enflesh’ or bring into focus the lived body in context, without coopting ‘bodily experience’ within linguistic interpretation (Brown et al., 2011). Analysis of the qualitative interviews helped to unpack ways in which call agents bring ‘bodiliness’ into voice in relation to the way they visualized their own bodies and the bodies of western clients. Informants' accounts of national identity, ‘Indian-ness’, ‘western-ness’ as well as imaginaries about the invisible worker/client were also unpacked. Given the range of qualitative methods used, thematic analysis approaches were considered appropriate (Attride-Stirling, 2001). Thematic analysis involves the reduction or distilling of textual data into codes and generating basic, organizing and global themes in increasing layers of abstraction. The interview transcripts, reflective diaries and field notes were anonymized to protect confidentiality and read and re-read to allow the author to immerse herself in the data. Line by line reading of the text helped to generate a coding frame from which themes were extracted. Four main themes are explored for this article, including (1) visible and invisible bodies; (2) gendered bodies; (3) body regulation and training; and (4) corporeal imaginaries.
本研究在分析方面面临的一个具体挑战是，如何在语言阐释中找到 "丰满 "或聚焦生活身体的方法，而不将 "身体体验 "纳入语言阐释（Brown et al.）对定性访谈的分析有助于解读呼叫代理如何将 "身体性 "与他们对自己和西方客户身体的视觉化方式联系起来。受访者对民族身份、"印度性"、"西方性 "的描述以及对隐形工作者/客户的想象也得到了解读。鉴于所使用的定性方法范围广泛，专题分析方法被认为是合适的（Attride-Stirling，2001 年）。主题分析包括将文本数据还原或提炼为代码，并在不断增加的抽象层中生成基本的、有组织的和全局性的主题。为了保密，访谈记录、反思日记和现场笔记都进行了匿名处理，并反复阅读，使作者能够沉浸在数据中。逐行阅读文本有助于形成编码框架，并从中提取主题。 本文探讨了四大主题，包括：(1) 可见与不可见的身体；(2) 性别身体；(3) 身体调节与训练；(4) 身体想象。

Discussion 讨论

This article examines identity work in call centres as a form of bodily discipline and embodied identity construction within the context of global capitalism. The few existing studies on identity work or national identity management have overwhelmingly used emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983) or impression management (Goffman, 1959) as an analytic frame. While these are valuable frameworks, they nonetheless project identity work to be a performative work constructed outside the body. Indeed Mirchandani's (2015) work comes closest to an embodied analysis of identity work, but even here, bodies only matter in relation to ‘reading bodies’ rather than work on one's own body. Qualitative data from this ethnographic study indicate that whole bodies are involved in the process of identity work.
本文研究了呼叫中心的身份工作，将其视为全球资本主义背景下的一种身体纪律和体现性身份构建形式。关于身份工作或国家身份管理的现有研究很少，绝大多数都使用情感劳动（Hochschild，1983 年）或印象管理（Goffman，1959 年）作为分析框架。虽然这些框架很有价值，但它们仍然将身份认同工作视为一种在身体之外构建的表演性工作。事实上，Mirchandani（2015 年）的研究最接近于对身份认同工作进行身体分析，但即使在这里，身体也只与 "阅读身体 "有关，而不是与自己身体的工作有关。这项人种学研究的定性数据表明，整个身体都参与了身份认同工作的过程。

Findings suggest that bodies matter in call centre work on several planes of analyses. The fleshy body is evoked in all aspects of agents' call centre work, including managing spatial and temporal dislocation between the agents' actual location and their pretence of being in the US; the adornment of bodies in preparation for work, body posture and emoting through voice; training modules which highlight idealized western bodies; and through visualization and corporeal imaginaries. Nuances around the politics of embodiment and othering are also evident, as call agents describe both the processes by which they construct the western client (and their own identities) but also how their actual encounters may sometimes destabilize these imaginaries. Firm-level differences are also evident and variations are seen in the adoption of surveillance cultures, and full/ part cultural immersion and identity masking based on how risk-averse the outsourcing companies were. Thus, the characterization of global outsourcing and identity work as a homogenous process is challenged, and multiple variations and complexities are unearthed.
研究结果表明，身体在呼叫中心工作中的重要性体现在多个分析层面。肉体在座席员呼叫中心工作的各个方面都被唤起，包括管理座席员的实际位置与他们假装在美国之间的空间和时间错位；在准备工作时对身体的装饰、身体姿势和通过声音进行的情感表达；强调理想化西方身体的培训模块；以及通过可视化和肉体想象。围绕 "体现 "和 "他者化 "政治的细微差别也是显而易见的，因为呼叫代理既描述了他们构建西方客户（以及他们自己的身份）的过程，也描述了他们的实际遭遇有时会如何颠覆这些想象。公司层面的差异也很明显，根据外包公司规避风险的程度，在采用监控文化、完全/部分文化浸入和身份掩饰方面也存在差异。因此，将全球外包和身份认同工作描述为一个同质化过程的观点受到了质疑，并发现了多种差异和复杂性。

‘Body dys-appearance’ and disembodiment in call centre work is also explored in detail in this study. While previous research has focussed on the lack of touch-based contact in interactive service work and regarded call centre work as disembodied, this study teases out the analytical differences between the body, body work, body regulation and embodiment. While the physical body may be invisible to the western client, the worker's body is most certainly visible to the call agent, their team and managers and is hence subject to regulation and control. Even there, variations exist, as there is evidence of agentic process and self-regulation in the ways call agents ‘work on their bodies’, whether it is to ‘teach your body’ to sleep in the day and work at night, or by adorning the body to make it visible to the self, or changing from Indian to western clothes before starting a night shift. These actions are performed by workers' bodies, they are not imagined or projected; even though these body practices may well be informed by embodied understandings of identity work.
本研究还详细探讨了呼叫中心工作中的 "身体失调 "和非实体化问题。以往的研究集中于互动服务工作中缺乏触摸式接触，并认为呼叫中心工作是非实体化的，而本研究则从分析角度揭示了身体、身体工作、身体调节和体现之间的差异。对于西方客户来说，身体可能是不可见的，但对于呼叫代理、其团队和管理人员来说，工作人员的身体无疑是可见的，因此也受到监管和控制。即便如此，也存在着各种差异，因为有证据表明，在呼叫代理 "锻炼身体 "的方式中存在着代理过程和自我调节，无论是 "教会你的身体 "白天睡觉晚上工作，还是通过装饰身体让自己看到它，或者在开始夜班前从印度服装换成西服。这些行为都是由工人的身体完成的，而不是想象或投射出来的；尽管这些身体实践很可能来自对身份工作的具身理解。

Body work as a framework can be used to describe call centre work, using Gimlin's (2007) inclusion of work on one's own body. This opens up a new set of theoretical possibilities in understand how bodies matter in call centre work. When the call agent labours to learn skills of masking mother tongue influence in their native accent, or pronounce words in an Americanized accent, they are performing body work. Call agents' narratives clearly indicate that the body is central to such work, and is infused in their body posture, their attitude and ultimately their tone of voice. Adoption of western pseudonyms and knowledge of western culture similarly are embodied practices, even if their purpose is to mask the worker's own bodily situation, and a host of behind-the-scenes bodily tasks are performed to make these performances authentic. Body regulation (Turner, 1983) and body pedagogics (Shilling and Mellor, 2007) also provide new ways of understanding identity work as an embodied practice, highlighting ways in which the fleshy body can occupy multiple positions on different cyber planes (Shilling, 2012). The development of the term ‘corporeal imaginaries’ in this paper extends current thinking on dual interpellation (McDowell et al., 2007) by linking it with the politics of othering; through a recursive and fluid form of empathetic identity construction, which is simultaneously complicit and ambivalent. The westernized client is hence constructed based on the idealizations and fantasies of the embodied other, and in this process, the call agents locate themselves as the familiar other. When symbolic difference is challenged through real-life encounters, the fantasy dissolves, and the power inequalities entrenched in global capitalism become visible.
身体工作作为一个框架，可以用来描述呼叫中心的工作，使用 Gimlin（2007 年）将自己身体上的工作纳入其中。这为理解身体在呼叫中心工作中的重要性提供了一系列新的理论可能性。当电话座席员努力学习用母语口音掩盖母语影响的技能，或用美国化的口音发音时，他们就是在进行身体工作。电话座席员的叙述清楚地表明，身体是这种工作的核心，并渗透到他们的身体姿势、态度以及最终的语音语调中。采用西方假名和了解西方文化同样也是身体工作，即使其目的是为了掩盖工作人员自身的身体状况，而且为了使这些表演真实可信，还需要完成一系列幕后的身体工作。身体调节（Turner，1983 年）和身体教育学（Shilling 和 Mellor，2007 年）也提供了将身份工作理解为一种具身实践的新方法，强调了肉体在不同网络平面上占据多重位置的方式（Shilling，2012 年）。 本文中 "肉体想象 "一词的提出扩展了当前关于双重互称的思考（麦克道尔等人，2007 年），将其与 "他者化 "政治联系起来；通过一种递归和流动的移情身份建构形式，同时具有共谋性和矛盾性。因此，西方化的客户是基于对 "他者 "的理想化和幻想而构建的，在这一过程中，呼叫代理将自己定位为熟悉的 "他者"。当象征性的差异在现实生活中受到挑战时，幻想就会消失，全球资本主义根深蒂固的权力不平等就会显现出来。

Embodied performances of gender and race in identity work also needs further explication. While previous research has highlighted the gendered and racialized nature of call centre work (Mirchandani, 2005; Nath, 2011; Poster, 2007) they have focused on identity management techniques being developed as ways of stemming racial abuse. The nature of this racial abuse needs further exploration. While racialization was evident in the call agents' experiences of dealing with customer abuse, the findings further unpack the politics of race and nation as pivotal to these processes, rather than racial abuse per se. This subtle but important differentiation matters, as it helps to dislocate racialization from colonial histories, and relocate them within the politics of relocates them within the racial politics of neoliberalism, global capitalism and nationhood. Thus, when an Indian living in the US challenges the Indian call agent living in India, the relational customer abuse is not based on the colonial master and servile call agent, but a tension arising from diasporic post-colonial social location, mediated by unequal conditions of global capitalism. Polar constructions of the ‘West and the Rest’ and the ‘West in the Rest’ can then give way to more differentiated understandings.
身份工作中的性别和种族体现也需要进一步阐释。虽然以往的研究强调了呼叫中心工作的性别和种族性质（Mirchandani, 2005; Nath, 2011; Poster, 2007），但这些研究都侧重于身份管理技术的开发，以此来阻止种族虐待。这种种族虐待的性质需要进一步探讨。虽然种族化在呼叫代理处理客户辱骂的经历中显而易见，但研究结果进一步揭示了种族和民族政治在这些过程中的关键作用，而不是种族辱骂本身。这种微妙而重要的区分非常重要，因为它有助于将种族化从殖民历史中剥离出来，并将其置于新自由主义、全球资本主义和民族主义的种族政治之中。因此，当生活在美国的印度人挑战生活在印度的印度呼叫代理时，客户的虐待关系并非基于殖民地主人和奴性呼叫代理，而是散居后殖民地社会位置所产生的紧张关系，并以全球资本主义的不平等条件为中介。 这样，"西方与其他国家 "和 "其他国家中的西方 "的两极结构就可以让位于更有区别的理解。

The concept of corporeal imaginaries proposed in this paper may be a useful concept to understand the didactic processes by which workers visualize clients' bodies in the absence of a face-to-face encounter. In an increasingly globalizing world where technology and social media are driving virtual rather than in-person contact, corporeal imaginaries may become a key tool for body pedagogic practice in service delivery. Further research may consider a wider application of body work in other forms of global service work and corporeal imaginaries in areas such as cyber-gaming, social media and Internet dating services. Bodies then provide a connective thread, between individual and organizational discourses around bodily discipline and global processes of economic production and consumption.
本文提出的 "身体想象"（corporeal imaginaries）概念可能是一个有用的概念，有助于理解在没有面对面接触的情况下，工作人员将客户的身体形象化的教学过程。在一个日益全球化的世界里，技术和社交媒体正在推动虚拟接触而非面对面接触，肉体想象可能会成为在提供服务过程中进行身体教育实践的重要工具。进一步的研究可以考虑将身体工作更广泛地应用于其他形式的全球服务工作，以及网络游戏、社交媒体和网络约会服务等领域的身体想象。这样，身体就成了个人和组织关于身体训练的论述与全球经济生产和消费过程之间的一条连接线。

Declaration of conflicting interests
利益冲突声明

The author declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
作者声明在撰写和/或发表本文方面没有潜在的利益冲突。

Funding 资金筹措

This study was funded by the Richard Benjamin Memorial Trust for Social and Occupational Psychology (Grant Code RBT110).
本研究由理查德-本杰明社会与职业心理学纪念信托基金（资助代码 RBT110）资助。