这是用户在 2024-7-27 20:28 为 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.12198 保存的双语快照页面,由 沉浸式翻译 提供双语支持。了解如何保存?
Special Issue Article 特刊文章
Open Access 开放存取

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

Sweta Rajan-Rankin

Corresponding Author

Sweta Rajan-Rankin

Address for correspondence: *Senior Lecturer, University of Kent., Mary Seacole Building, 3rd Floor, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH; e-mail: s.rajan-rankin@kent.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author
First published: 30 August 2017
Citations: 19

首次发布:2017 年 8 月 30 日 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12198Citations:19

Abstract 摘要

This article explores the linkages between identity work, the body and embodiment in transnational call centres. Identity work, defined as the masking of national identity to imply proximity to the western client, provides an opportunity for the analyst to examine workplace embodiment in a global context. Qualitative data from an ethnographic study of two global outsourcing firms in India (2010–2012) explicated these processes. Narrative accounts suggest that call centre workers are routinely made aware of the body as a target of discipline, for instance in training; by working on their own bodies (including posture, dress, voice modulation and other forms of body regulation); by working on the bodies of others (through voice-based interactions) and by using embodied images of Americans to contextualize the service provided. In this way, the western client is visualized by the Indian call worker through corporeal imaginaries that concomitantly construct, subvert and resist the West-Rest dichotomy in service relations. Far from being disembodied, this study demonstrates that the body is central to global service work.
本文探讨了跨国呼叫中心中身份工作、身体和体现之间的联系。身份工作被定义为掩盖国家身份以暗示接近西方客户,它为分析者提供了一个在全球背景下审视工作场所体现的机会。对印度两家全球外包公司的人种学研究(2010-2012 年)中的定性数据对这些过程进行了阐释。叙事性叙述表明,呼叫中心的工作人员经常意识到身体是纪律的目标,例如在培训中;通过锻炼自己的身体(包括姿势、着装、声音调节和其他形式的身体调节);通过锻炼他人的身体(通过基于语音的互动),以及通过使用美国人的具身形象将所提供的服务情景化。这样,印度呼叫工作者通过身体想象将西方客户形象化,同时在服务关系中构建、颠覆和抵制西方与西方的二分法。本研究表明,身体远非不存在,而是全球服务工作的核心。

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。

In contrast, Mirchandani's (2004; 2005; 2012; 2015) research explores identity work in transnational call centres using feminist epistemologies. Mirchandani (2012) identifies simultaneously occurring discourses which underpin global service work. In the first instance, the physical remoteness of information and communication technology work makes the Indian worker into a ‘stranger’/‘other’ representing a threat to western jobs. To counter this, workers are encouraged to behave ‘just the same as’ their western clients. ‘Authenticity work’ hence involves a form of emotional labour in which call centre workers project themselves as ‘authentic copies’ of an idealized western worker. Implicit within this discourse is that presentation of self as an Indian agent could elicit perceived race-related abuse. In her later work, Mirchandani (2015) seeks to reframe voice-based call centre work as a form of ‘no-touch embodiment’ work. Challenging the view that call centre work is disembodied, she suggests that call agents infuse ‘flesh in voice’ by reading bodies of western clients through the process of interpellation. She observes,
相比之下,米尔钱达尼(2004;2005;2012;2015)的研究利用女权主义认识论探讨了跨国呼叫中心的身份工作。米尔钱达尼(2012 年)指出了支撑全球服务工作的同时存在的话语。首先,信息和通信技术工作的偏远性使印度工人成为 "陌生人"/"他者",对西方工作构成威胁。为了应对这种情况,印度鼓励工人的行为要 "与 "西方客户 "无异"。因此,"真实工作 "涉及到一种情感劳动,呼叫中心的员工将自己塑造成理想化的西方员工的 "真实复制品"。这种说法隐含的意思是,以印度人的身份出现可能会引起与种族有关的虐待。米尔钱达尼(Mirchandani,2015 年)在其后期作品中试图将语音呼叫中心工作重新定义为一种 "无接触体现 "工作。她对呼叫中心工作是非实体化的观点提出质疑,认为呼叫中心座席人员通过 "互称 "过程解读西方客户的身体,从而在 "语音中注入肉体"。她观察到

Part of the job of a customer service worker is transmission of bodies through voice . . . making sense of how ideal workers are embodied in callers' eyes and using their voices to emulate these imagined ideal workers (Mirchandani, 2015, p. 909).
客服人员的部分工作就是通过声音传递身体......了解来电者眼中的理想员工是如何体现的,并用他们的声音来模仿这些想象中的理想员工(Mirchandani,2015 年,第 909 页)。

While this vein of research is interesting, the focus is still on reading idealized bodies and incorporating these characteristics into the call agents' performance, rather than work on one's body as a target of discipline. In this sense, the connections between embodiment and identity work have not yet been sharply made. In order to develop these ideas further, I will draw on the sociology of body literature, especially concepts of embodiment, body work, training and body pedagogics and corporeal imaginaries to enflesh the body within call centre work.
虽然这种研究思路很有意思,但重点仍然是解读理想化的身体,并将这些特征融入呼叫代理的表演中,而不是将自己的身体作为约束的目标。从这个意义上说,体现与身份认同工作之间的联系还没有被清晰地建立起来。为了进一步发展这些观点,我将借鉴身体社会学的文献,特别是体现、身体工作、训练和身体教育学以及身体想象等概念,来充实呼叫中心工作中的身体。

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. 

Bodily training in call centres also occurs within a technology-mediated environment. Shilling and Mellor (2007, p. 533) describe ‘body pedagogics’ as  

central means through which a culture seeks to transmit its main corporeal techniques, skills, dispositions and beliefs, the experiences typically associated with acquiring these attributes, and the actual embodied changes resulting from this process. 

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。

Visible and invisible bodies
看得见和看不见的身体

The spatial and temporal organization of voice-based call centre work indicated visible control over invisible workers (Bain and Taylor, 2000; Valsecchi, 2006). Participant observation of the shop floor of the call centre sites was a study of contrasts: high levels of surveillance over workers' bodies on the one hand and invisible callers on the other. The author's reflective diary gives a flavour of the shop floor.
语音呼叫中心工作的空间和时间组织显示了对无形工人的有形控制(Bain 和 Taylor,2000 年;Valsecchi,2006 年)。对呼叫中心现场车间的参与观察是一项对比研究:一方面是对工人身体的高度监控,另一方面是无形的呼叫者。作者的反思日记提供了车间的风貌。

As I enter company X, my bag is thoroughly searched and I am denuded of my cell phone, computer and other electronic items by security. Here surveillance seems heaviest. Once I enter it is like looking inside an inverted fish bowl. Bright lights are everywhere, with colourful offices, belying the late hour: here there is nowhere to hide. Row upon row of open plan cubicles face me with endless anonymous faces, adorning headsets, staring at computer screens, speaking to voices from far away.
当我进入 X 公司时,我的包被彻底搜查,手机、电脑和其他电子产品也被保安搜走。这里的监控似乎最严密。我一进入公司,就像进入了一个倒置的鱼缸。到处都是明亮的灯光,五颜六色的办公室,尽管时间已晚:这里无处可藏。一排排开放式隔间面对着我,里面是一张张匿名的面孔,他们戴着耳机,盯着电脑屏幕,听着来自远方的声音。

These ‘outsider’ impressions seem to accord with the description of call centres as ‘electronic panopticons’ characterized by heavy body surveillance (Bain and Taylor, 2000). However, firm-level differences reveal a less consistent picture. Interviews with managers and team leads in call centre firms in the two firms suggest different rationales underpinning surveillance cultures on the call centre shop floor.

We deal with . . . credit card information you know? . . . We take the security of this information very seriously. That is why we have open plan offices and heavy security. Computers are fitted without CD or USB connections so no information can go out (Firm 1, NCR).
我们处理 . . . 信用卡信息,你知道吗?. . .我们非常重视这些信息的安全。因此,我们有开放式的办公室和严密的安保措施。电脑没有 CD 或 USB 接口,因此信息不会外泄(公司 1,NCR)。

These girls and boys . . . they can find the work repetitive and boring. By making the company bright and colourful, open plan so everyone can be together, we are helping the workers be alert, and stay up in the night shifts (Firm 2, Hyderabad).
这些女孩和男孩......他们会觉得工作重复而枯燥。我们把公司布置得明亮多彩,采用开放式设计,让每个人都能聚在一起,从而帮助工人提高警惕,在夜班时也能保持清醒(公司 2,海得拉巴)。

These narratives suggest that the ‘electronic panopticon’ imagery needs a more nuanced reading. In the first narrative, managers explain surveillance in terms of agents' bodies as potential conduits of sensitive information, while in the second narrative, call agents are viewed as fragile, prone to boredom and fatigue from the vagaries of temporal dystopia.
这些叙述表明,"电子监控 "的意象需要更细致的解读。在第一种叙述中,管理者从座席人员的身体作为敏感信息的潜在渠道来解释监控,而在第二种叙述中,呼叫座席人员被视为脆弱的人,容易因时空乌托邦的变幻莫测而感到无聊和疲劳。

Self-regulation is also important. For instance, a customer service representative tells us about the ways in which he attempts to ‘teach his body’ to adapt to night shift work.
自我调节也很重要。例如,一位客户服务代表向我们讲述了他试图 "教导自己的身体 "以适应夜班工作的方法。

My family all know, I work through the night and come in very early in the morning. You have to stay organized and teach your body ‘look it's night time' even if the sun is blazing outside. I draw the curtains and the whole house has to be in darkness, even the Bai (cleaning lady) knows not to disturb.
我的家人都知道,我通宵达旦地工作,早上很早就起床。即使外面烈日当空,你也必须保持井井有条,并教导自己的身体 "看,现在是晚上"。我拉上窗帘,整个房子都必须处于黑暗之中,甚至连小白(清洁女工)都知道不能打扰。

His self-regulation is part of an embodied performance of projecting himself as a rested, alert and responsive customer service worker (Mirchandani, 2015). When day becomes night, and night becomes day for the call centre worker, the body becomes a central tool in performing this temporal labour. This is consistent with Turner's (1983) model of bodily order, where somatic bodies are subject to internal regulation and control based on the organization of jobs. Moreover this bodily performance requires more than just self-regulation; he also required the cooperation of his family. ‘Teaching your body’ is a collective experience, and the whole household, including the housekeeper, is involved in maintaining this performance.
他的自我调节是将自己塑造成一个休息好、警觉性高、反应迅速的客户服务人员的体现性表演的一部分(Mirchandani,2015 年)。当白天变成黑夜,黑夜变成白天时,对于呼叫中心的工作人员来说,身体就成了进行这种时间劳动的核心工具。这与特纳(1983 年)的身体秩序模型是一致的,在该模型中,身体受到基于工作组织的内部调节和控制。此外,这种身体表演不仅需要自我调节,还需要家人的配合。教导你的身体 "是一种集体体验,包括女管家在内的整个家庭都参与其中,共同维持这种表演。

Indeed, CSRs' bodies were very much in management's mind during the extensive training process provided to new CSRs. In the following excerpt a voice and accent (V&A) trainer talks about the importance of sounding professional. The way in which the CSR sits and holds his body is viewed as an extension of his attitude to his work.
事实上,在对新任企业社会责任人进行广泛培训的过程中,管理层对企业社会责任人的身体非常重视。在下面的摘录中,一位声音和口音(V&A)培训师谈到了听起来专业的重要性。企业社会责任人的坐姿和身体姿势被视为其工作态度的延伸。

Communication in call handling is not just about voice and accents . . . it's utmost about attitude. I remember this one guy in my batch, he would always slouch in his seat, never make eye contact, look really relaxed. I would tell him this is not the proper way . . . it's not professional. He would tell me ‘how does it matter, the client has my ears, how I sit is not important’. I would tell him point blank, ‘of course it is, what you do with your body, your posture, your attitude will come through in your voice’.
电话处理中的沟通不仅仅是声音和口音......最重要的是态度。我记得我们那批人中有一个家伙,他总是懒洋洋地坐在座位上,从不与人进行眼神交流,看起来非常放松。我会告诉他这不是正确的方式......这不专业。他会告诉我'这有什么关系,客户听我的,我怎么坐不重要'。我会直截了当地告诉他,'当然重要,你的肢体动作、姿势、态度都会通过你的声音表现出来'。

This account indicates the significance of whole body deportment in training for call workers. Call handling is viewed as an embodied performance where body posture, gestures and general deportment are viewed as key to projecting a professional attitude (flesh in voice) (Mirchandani, 2015).
这一论述表明了全身仪态在呼叫工作者培训中的重要性。呼叫处理被视为一种体现性表演,其中身体姿势、手势和总体仪态被视为体现专业态度(声音中的肉体)的关键(Mirchandani,2015 年)。

Gendered body performances
性别化的身体表演

Front-line service work performances also require gender-linked bodily discipline. Wainwright et al. (2011) for instance noted that mothers who engaged in body training in beauty work often drew on skills associated with their gendered social identities to perform their roles. In this study both male and female CSRs reported ways in which they used their physical bodies as anchors in the voice-based call encounter. This female CSR describes her ‘relational’ body disappearing when it is not gazed upon and read by the customer, just as she is unable to see, gauge, read and interpret the customer's body, gesture and emotion.
一线服务工作也需要与性别相关的身体训练。例如,Wainwright 等人(2011 年)指出,在美容工作中进行肢体训练的母亲通常会利用与其性别社会身份相关的技能来扮演角色。在本研究中,男性和女性企业社会责任人都报告了他们在语音呼叫中使用身体作为锚的方式。这位女性企业社会责任人描述说,当她的 "关系 "身体不被客户注视和阅读时,她的身体就会消失,就像她无法看到、衡量、阅读和解释客户的身体、姿态和情感一样。

It's like my body doesn't exist, everything I do is on the phone. The customer cannot see me, they don't know what I look like, I don't know what they look like. Through my voice, I have to let them know who I am, how genuine I am in trying to help them.
我的身体就像不存在一样,我所做的一切都在电话里。客户看不到我,他们不知道我长什么样子,我也不知道他们长什么样子。通过我的声音,我必须让他们知道我是谁,我是多么真诚地想要帮助他们。

During her voice remains an embodied part of her work, the lack of visibility to the client, makes the female call agent feel invisible. To counter this corporeal disappearance, she takes pains to dress and paint her nails in aesthetically pleasing ways to make her ‘absent-present’ body resurface in her own gaze.
在她的声音仍然是其工作的一个体现部分期间,客户对她的不可见性使女呼叫代理感到自己是隐形的。为了对抗这种肉体上的消失,她不遗余力地打扮自己,并用美观的方式涂指甲油,让自己 "不在场 "的身体重新出现在自己的视线中。

Sometimes, it can be really boring you know, just sitting there in the office all day, talking on the phone, no one to see or for them to see you . . . They can't see me on the phone, but I can look smart. I bring my western clothes in a bag and put them on when I come to the office in the morning. I like to paint my nails and have my mehendi, just so I can feel that I look nice … I look at my nails a lot when I am on the phone! [laughs].
有时候,你知道,整天坐在办公室里,讲电话,没有人可以看到你,也没有人可以看到你......这真的很无聊。. .他们看不到我讲电话,但我可以显得很聪明。我把西服装在包里,早上来办公室时穿上。我喜欢涂指甲油,涂指甲油是为了让我觉得自己看起来很漂亮......我打电话的时候经常看自己的指甲![笑)。

This narrative provides insights into the intricate bodily performance of the female CSR who changes from Indian dress into western dress to immerse herself into the landscape of global call work. The emphasis on her nails and mehendi (henna art work) on her hands are revealing as these are the part of her body she is most likely to look at during her call. The physical adornment of her body to prepare for the call also provides an insight into the feminized performance by which the call worker is working on her own body (Gimlin, 2007), because it also includes her attempt to combine ‘western’ and local features of feminine embodiment. The importance of dress and aesthetic presentation once again alludes to the embodied aspects of self-presentation in call centre work (Freeman, 2000).
通过这段叙述,我们可以了解到女性 CSR 复杂的身体表演,她从印度服装换成西服,沉浸在全球呼叫工作中。她对指甲和手部指甲花(mehendi)的强调很有启发性,因为这是她在通话过程中最有可能看到的身体部位。为准备接听电话而对身体进行的装饰也让人了解到应召女郎对自己身体进行的女性化表演(Gimlin,2007 年),因为这也包括她试图将 "西方 "和当地的女性化特征结合起来。着装和审美展示的重要性再次暗示了呼叫中心工作中自我展示的体现方面(Freeman,2000 年)。
Seeing the body in the voice applies not just to the self, but also to visualizing the caller. In the following quotations, two male CSRs in different call centre firms describe very similar experiences of visualizing the American female caller as a ‘mother-figure’ to provide a more personalized service and offset possible customer abuse.
在声音中看到身体不仅适用于自我,也适用于将呼叫者形象化。在下面的引文中,不同呼叫中心公司的两名男性客服代表描述了非常相似的经历,他们将美国女性来电者形象化为 "母亲形象",以提供更加个性化的服务,抵消可能出现的客户谩骂。

When I am on a call, I try to imagine who I am speaking to. It is a nice American female voice. I think to myself, she must be a mom with young children. I try to see her as a person with a family who is having a problem with her credit card. I try to help her, not just as a voice on the phone, but as a person to person. [Firm 1, NCR]
当我打电话时,我会试着想象我在和谁通话。这是一个好听的美国女声。我心想,她一定是一位有年幼孩子的母亲。我试着把她想象成一个有家庭的人,她的信用卡出了问题。我试着帮助她,不仅仅是电话里的声音,而是人与人之间的交流。[公司 1,NCR]

Sometimes we have a gori mem [white madam] calling and they get upset and start abusing. To keep myself cool . . . have to be cool at all times, to be professional, I think to myself ‘she is like my mother, my better’, its ok . . . I tell myself I am there to help. [Firm 2, Hyderabad]
有时,我们会接到一个 Gori Mem(白人鸨母)的电话,她们会很生气,并开始辱骂我们。为了让自己保持冷静......我必须时刻保持冷静,保持专业精神,我对自己说 "她就像我的母亲,是我的亲人",这样就可以了......。我告诉自己,我是来帮忙的。[公司 2,海得拉巴]

Both male Indian CSRs imagine the western client to be a mother figure and embed them within a organization-as-family context to provide a personalized service. In the second quotation, gender and race intermingle as the male CSR tries to offset abuse from a female customer and ‘keep himself cool’ by evoking Indian cultural norms around respect for parents and elders. This normative referencing is consistent with findings around paternalistic work cultures in some global offshore call centres in India, and specific ways in which call centre organizations reinforce familial values to ensure organizational loyalty (Rajan-Rankin, 2016). Extending this analogy, the male CSRs are engaging in a gendered performance where feminized attributes of empathy and compassion enable them to be professional and provide high-quality service. Indeed, professionalism is often used as an all-encompassing discourse to absorb many complex gendered and racialized narratives in call centre work (Noranho and D'Cruz, 2009).
两位印度男性企业社会责任人都将西方客户想象成母亲的形象,并将他们置于组织即家庭的背景中,以提供个性化服务。在第二段引文中,性别和种族交织在一起,男性企业社会责任人试图抵消女性客户的辱骂,并通过唤起尊重父母和长辈的印度文化规范来 "保持冷静"。这种规范性引用与印度一些全球离岸呼叫中心的家长式工作文化以及呼叫中心组织强化家庭价值观以确保组织忠诚度的具体方式的研究结果相一致(Rajan-Rankin,2016 年)。以此类推,男性企业社会责任人正在从事一种性别化的工作,在这种工作中,女性化的同理心和同情心使他们能够专业地提供高质量的服务。事实上,专业性往往被用作一种包罗万象的话语,以吸收呼叫中心工作中许多复杂的性别和种族叙事(Noranho 和 D'Cruz,2009 年)。

Body regulation 身体调节

Turner (1983) describes regulation as a key aspect of social theory which involves regulation of bodies to maintain the fine balance between interpersonal intimacy and social anonymity. In this study, body regulation (both organizationally driven and self-regulation) is witnessed in the skilled practice of voice and accent training V&A training whereby Indian call workers attempt to project a westernized identity, that is at once, intimate and familiar to the western client, but also different enough to assure anonymity. The creative process of selecting western pseudonyms suggests an element of agency in constructing the alternate self-identity (and thus resisting and possibly subverting organizational regulation of their bodies). The notion of ‘body training’ provides a useful lens for understanding ‘how the bodily is learned and enforced’ (Wainwright et al., 2011). Finally, the implications of such assumed bodily constructions in relation to management of customer abuse is considered, through various mechanisms including humour and irony as tools of conciliation, subversion and resistance.
特纳(1983 年)将调节描述为社会理论的一个关键方面,它涉及对身体的调节,以保持人际亲密性与社会匿名性之间的微妙平衡。在本研究中,身体调节(包括组织驱动和自我调节)体现在语音和口音培训 V&A 培训的熟练实践中,印度呼叫工作者试图塑造西方化的身份,既让西方客户感到亲切和熟悉,又足够与众不同以确保匿名性。选择西方假名的创造性过程表明,在构建另一种自我身份(从而抵制并可能颠覆组织对其身体的管理)的过程中存在代理因素。身体训练 "的概念为理解 "身体是如何被学习和执行的"(Wainwright 等人,2011 年)提供了一个有用的视角。最后,通过各种机制,包括幽默和讽刺作为调解、颠覆和抵抗的工具,考虑了这种假定的身体构造对客户虐待管理的影响。

Corporealizing aurality: V&A training
实体化的虚拟性维多利亚与艾尔伯特博物馆培训

Voice and accent training is a key aspect of cultural masking and involves a corporealizing of aurality and the infusing of a westernized (American) identity through the manipulation of one's accent. Considerable variability was seen in the firms in NCR and Hyderabad in relation to full or partial masking of the Indian accent, and/or the removal of mother-tongue influence to make the accent more understandable. This IT-Enabled Services policy expert explains logic of accent neutralization.
嗓音和口音训练是文化掩蔽的一个重要方面,它涉及到灵性的实体化,以及通过对口音的处理注入西方化的(美国)身份。在印度北部地区和海德拉巴的公司中,完全或部分掩盖印度口音和/或消除母语的影响以使口音更易理解的做法存在很大差异。这位信息技术服务政策专家解释了口音中和的逻辑。

Back in the 1990s when call centres first came to India . . . companies were very risk averse. They preferred low risk strategies such as complete cultural immersion and pseudonymity. Now there is less of a push to change names, but more emphasis on removing the mother tongue influence, just accent neutralization, not trying to sound like a gora [white foreigner] just enough so you can be understood.
早在 20 世纪 90 年代,呼叫中心刚进入印度时......公司都非常规避风险。他们更倾向于低风险策略,如完全的文化浸入和化名。现在,人们不那么提倡改名,而是更强调消除母语的影响,只是中和口音,不要试图让自己听起来像一个 gora(白人外国人),只要足够让人听得懂就可以了。

The IT expert was making links between perceptions of ‘risk’ and revealing Indian identity, which are in line with existing research around managing stigma associated with national identity (Nath, 2011). However, the implications around partial cultural masking still need to be unpacked. Organizational discourses around ‘accentless English’ and ‘being understood’ are not always meant to totally obscure the agent's socio-cultural identity. The call agent must negotiate the subtleties of adoping a ‘neutral accent’, while being careful not to imitate the client or appear disingenuous.
这位信息技术专家将 "风险 "感知与暴露印度人身份联系起来,这与现有的关于管理与民族身份相关的耻辱感的研究是一致的(Nath,2011 年)。然而,部分文化遮蔽的影响仍有待解读。围绕 "无口音英语 "和 "被理解 "的组织论述并不总是为了完全掩盖座席人员的社会文化身份。呼叫代理必须就采用 "中性口音 "的微妙之处进行协商,同时注意不要模仿客户或显得虚伪。

Customers can understand a neutral accent, but you have to be careful not to try to imitate the customer. What will they think, arre (hey!) ‘these fellows are trying to imitate us, they are taking the piss’. The customer can tell you ‘sorry, I cannot understand your English, can you transfer my call to somehow who can talk properly’. So you need to be good enough with your English, but not too perfect.
顾客能听懂中性口音,但你必须注意不要试图模仿顾客。他们会怎么想呢?"这些家伙在模仿我们,他们在开玩笑"。客户可能会告诉你'对不起,我听不懂你的英语,你能不能把我的电话转给其他会说英语的人'。因此,你的英语要足够好,但也不能太完美。

Adopting a generic westernized (American) accent is hence a tricky business, and can involve treading the fine line between ‘mimicry’ and ‘mockery’ (Bhabha, 1994). The imitation of the American accent needs to be pleasing in its authenticity as a true copy (Mirchandani, 2012), but any slip in the aural performance can cause the entire identity masking to be called into question (Raghuram, 2011).
因此,采用通用的西方化(美国)口音是一项棘手的工作,可能需要在 "模仿 "与 "嘲弄 "之间徘徊(Bhabha, 1994)。对美国口音的模仿需要令人愉悦的真实感(Mirchandani, 2012),但听觉表演中的任何失误都会导致整个身份掩饰受到质疑(Raghuram, 2011)。

Adopting western pseudonyms
采用西方假名

The adoption of western pseudonyms provides another layer in identity work. Call agents described the logic of pseudonymization as complex, ranging from negative perceptions about outsourcing to managing anxieties about ‘risk’ and being ‘too different’.
采用西方假名为身份工作提供了另一个层面。呼叫代理认为化名的逻辑很复杂,既有对外包的负面看法,也有对 "风险 "和 "过于与众不同 "的焦虑。

We are Indians, our names are very hard to understand and spell. See, changing the name is most important thing, because Americans they won't happy nowadays with outsourcing. They won't be happy. Just right now 8:30 I took a call. That lady was . . . very politely she was asking, where are you from? I told. They cannot recognize that you are from India. Because our slang will be different, our pronunciation will be different.
我们是印度人,我们的名字很难理解和拼写。你看,改名字是最重要的事情,因为美国人如今对外包并不满意。他们不会高兴的就在八点半,我接了个电话。那位女士很礼貌地问,你从哪里来?我告诉她他们认不出你来自印度。因为我们的俚语和发音都不一样。

There is however, also evidence of agency and creativity in the selection of pseudonyms. This CSR describes how he chooses his name and the image he creates using it.
不过,也有证据表明,在选择假名时存在代理权和创造性。这份 CSR 介绍了他如何选择自己的名字以及他用这个名字塑造的形象。

We do have a fair bit of choice in how we choose our (western) names. For me, well I like Jamie Foxx a lot. So I asked if I could get Jamie Foxx as a pseudonym. My trainer said no, because it wasn't believable as it was a Hollywood actor's name and the callers might think we are making crank calls. So I thought about it and said . . . Damien Foxx. He's everybody's friend. He's really cool, but trustworthy and all the girls want to be with him.
在如何选择我们的(西方)名字方面,我们确实有相当多的选择。对我来说,我非常喜欢杰米-福克斯(Jamie Foxx)。所以我问能不能用杰米-福克斯(Jamie Foxx)作为笔名。我的培训师说不行,因为这是一个好莱坞演员的名字,打电话的人可能会以为我们在打骚扰电话,所以不可信。于是我想了想,说 . . .达米安-福克斯他是大家的朋友。他很酷,但值得信赖 所有女孩都想和他在一起

This CSR draws inspiration from a Hollywood actor to infuse his work identity with an alter-ego image of a masculinized image, a ‘man's man', ‘everyone's friend', ‘a girl magnet’. He humanizes his work identity, enfleshes it with corporeal attributes that he wants to emulate, to perform his service role. The bodily is clearly present in the creative process of selecting pseudonyms and the call agent's own agency is involved in his crafting of his own work identity, within the remit of the social regulation of his identity. Micro-level processes provide insights into the spaces created by call agents, to subvert, resist and shape their own modernized identities within the call process (Basi, 2009).
这位 CSR 从好莱坞演员身上汲取灵感,为自己的工作身份注入了男性化的另一个自我形象,即 "男人中的男人"、"每个人的朋友"、"女孩的磁铁"。他将自己的工作身份人性化,使之具有他想要效仿的身体特质,以履行自己的服务职责。在选择假名的创造性过程中,身体的存在是显而易见的,呼叫代理自身的机构参与了他在社会对其身份的监管范围内对自身工作身份的塑造。微观层面的过程让我们了解到呼叫代理在呼叫过程中创造的空间,以颠覆、抵制和塑造自己的现代化身份(Basi,2009 年)。

Managing customer abuse 管理客户滥用

Front-line service workers frequently encounter irate and abusive customers (McDowell, 2009) and call centre work is no exception (Mirchandani, 2012; Nath, 2011, Raghuram, 2011). Calls are frequently recorded and Scripted call work requires agents who encounter abusive callers to give a verbal warning and hand over the call to a team leader. In this narrative, the manager recounts an incident where a call agent compliments the American client for her use of swear words, using humour and irony to subtly challenge and destabilize the abusive call. Humour in this situation can be viewed as an example of subversion and conciliation, working on the bodily (swearing, cursing American client) to humanize the service encounter, and receive more humane treatment in return.
前线服务人员经常会遇到恼怒和辱骂的客户(McDowell,2009 年),呼叫中心的工作也不例外(Mirchandani,2012 年;Nath,2011 年;Raghuram,2011 年)。呼叫经常被录音,脚本化呼叫工作要求座席人员在遇到辱骂性呼叫者时发出口头警告,并将呼叫移交给团队领导。在这段叙述中,经理讲述了一位呼叫代理夸奖美国客户使用脏话的事件,利用幽默和讽刺巧妙地挑战和破坏了辱骂电话的稳定。在这种情况下,幽默可以被视为一种颠覆和调和,从身体(说脏话、咒骂美国客户)入手,使服务遭遇人性化,并得到更人道的回报。

I can give you an example, there is one of my guys . . . (he) was talking to an American lady. She was using the F letter word, a number of times, before she starts a sentence, after she ends a sentence, she was using it. Usually when a customer starts using profanity we tell them ‘So sorry ma’am, we will not be able to handle the call'. This guy, my rep, he was a very nice guy, and he just told her ‘I really like the way you use the F word ma’am' [laughs]. Then she realized and said ‘I have five guys under me and I have to kick their butts all the time’. She became very polite, very friendly.
我可以给你举个例子,我的一个同事.(他)和一位美国女士聊天。她用了好几次 "F "开头的单词,在她开始说一句话之前,在她结束说一句话之后,她都在用这个词。通常,当客户开始说脏话时,我们会告诉他们'很抱歉,女士,我们无法处理这个电话'。这个人,我的代表,是个很好的人,他只是告诉她'我很喜欢你用 F 字的方式,女士'[笑]。然后她明白了,说'我手下有五个人,我得一直踢他们的屁股'。她变得非常有礼貌,非常友好。

In time that the narrative above illustrates the creative use of humour to diffuse tension, customer abuse remains a painful and constant part of the everyday call centre interaction. Backlash, particularly in the form of anger over outsourcing and loss of jobs characterizes many of these encounters.
上文的叙述说明了如何创造性地运用幽默来缓解紧张局势,但在呼叫中心的日常互动中,辱骂客户仍然是一个令人痛苦和持续存在的问题。反弹,尤其是对外包和失业的愤怒,是许多这类遭遇的特点。

Abuse? Happens almost daily. It does happen maybe one or two times in a day. During some point in the call, some people say ‘You Indians!!!’ etc. I try not to talk to them about it, to evade, to change the topic. But it always comes back to that, that we are Indian. That's why changing our names and accents helps, so we can get on with the job, with the purpose of the call, it is less distracting.
虐待?几乎每天都发生。一天中可能会发生一两次。在通话过程中,有些人会说 "你这个印第安人!!!"等等。我尽量不跟他们说这些,回避或转移话题。但话题总是回到我们是印度人这件事上。这就是为什么改变我们的名字和口音会有帮助的原因,这样我们就能继续工作,继续通话的目的,就不会那么分心了。

In this quotation, the customer has ‘caught the call agent out’ as an Indian worker and vents their frustration. The call agent is unable to re-engage the masked cultural performance, despite attempts to evade and change the topic. There is an implicit assumption here that the Indian identity is problematic (‘distracting’) and obfuscates the purpose of the service encounter. Two levels of racial imaginaries are at play. The western client challenges the performance through a negative portrayal of the Indian worker. The Indian worker receives this as race-related abuse, but subsumes it within the professional discourse of the neutral worker. Professionalism then becomes a functional barrier to stem customer abuse, even though it also distorts the call agent's ability to combat unfair assumptions about national identity.
在这段引文中,客户 "发现 "了作为印度工人的呼叫代理,并发泄了他们的不满。尽管电话座席人员试图回避和转移话题,但却无法重新与客户进行掩盖的文化表演。这里有一个隐含的假设,即印度人的身份有问题("分散注意力"),混淆了服务接触的目的。种族想象有两个层面。西方客户通过对印度工人的负面描述来质疑其表现。印度工人认为这是与种族有关的辱骂,但将其归入中立工人的专业话语中。这样,专业性就成了阻止客户辱骂的功能性障碍,尽管它也扭曲了呼叫代理打击对民族身份的不公平假设的能力。

Imagining the ‘other’: corporeal imaginaries
想象 "他人":肉体想象

Corporeal characteristics of imagined western clients were often used in training to enable call agents to visualize and construct the ‘other’ through corporeal imaginaries. As McDowell et al. (2007) note, the embodiment of corporeal attributes linked to job roles provides an imagined discourse about the customer/client that is relationally defined. Raghuram (2011) describes ways in which call agents use images of snow and Christmas to situate clients in cold weather climes. Mirchandani (2015) talks about images of men in tuxedos used in call agent recruitment campaigns to construct the idealized western male client. These images represent caricatures of the west, and enable the Indian agent who has likely never visited America to imagine their context. Poster (2007, p. 272) articulates the training given to Indian call agents:
在培训中经常使用想象中的西方客户的肉体特征,使呼叫代理能够通过肉体想象来形象化和构建 "他人"。正如麦克道尔等人(McDowell et al. 2007)所指出的,与工作角色相关的肉体属性的体现提供了一种关于客户/顾客的想象话语,这种话语是关系定义的。拉古拉姆(Raghuram)(2011 年)描述了呼叫代理如何利用雪和圣诞节的形象将客户置于寒冷的气候环境中。Mirchandani(2015 年)谈到了呼叫代理招聘活动中使用的燕尾服男士形象,以构建理想化的西方男性客户。这些形象代表了西方的漫画形象,让可能从未到过美国的印度座席人员能够想象他们的背景。海报(2007 年,第 272 页)阐述了对印度呼叫代理的培训:

Anil . . . has learned the local lingo, and knows Americans shop at Walgreens, eat at McDonalds . . . drive Ford Fiestas . . . In order to get a sense of how to put the whole package of American-ness together, he has been watching Friends and Baywatch in training sessions.
阿尼尔......已经学会了当地的行话,知道美国人在沃尔格林购物,在麦当劳吃饭......开福特嘉年华.. ..为了了解如何将整套美国元素融合在一起,他在训练课上一直在看《老友记》和《海湾救生队》。

In our study, a female CSR describes training videos she was given to sell a fitness product called Beach Body.
在我们的研究中,一位女性企业社会责任人讲述了她在销售一款名为 "海滩健美 "的健身产品时收到的培训视频。

When I first joined as a CSR the main process we were catering to was Beach Body, selling fitness products. They sell DVDs so any person can work out at home without having to go to the gym. The trainers gave us videos to watch about California and people's craze for fitness there. We had to know the culture . . . not just that we were selling fitness videos.
我刚加入 CSR 时,我们的主要业务是销售健身产品的 Beach Body。他们销售 DVD,因此任何人都可以在家健身,而不必去健身房。培训师给我们提供视频,让我们观看关于加利福尼亚和那里人们的健身热潮的视频。我们必须了解那里的文化......而不仅仅是销售健身视频。

In both these extracts, corporeal imaginaries play a central role in training, by producing stereotypical images of (white) physically fit and attractive, wealthy, successful Americans. By extension the coloured Indian call agent has to ‘sell’ this image of whiteness to consumers and also embody his/her own difference from this normative ideal. Bodies and embodiment hence are inherent in the training through exposure to consumption culture. These imaginaries were not only restricted to western clients. Moreover, according to the call agents, they are also ‘imagined’ in stereotypical ways by western clients.
在这两个片段中,肉体想象在培训中发挥了核心作用,它塑造了(白人)体格健壮、有吸引力、富有、成功的美国人的刻板形象。推而广之,有色人种印度呼叫代理必须向消费者 "推销 "这种白人形象,并体现出自己与这种标准理想的差异。因此,通过接触消费文化,身体和体现是培训的固有内容。这些想象不仅限于西方客户。此外,根据呼叫代理的说法,他们也以刻板的方式被西方客户 "想象"。

Most of the people in the US know something about India. Most times they talk about the Taj Mahal . . . and they talk about food, Indian food, spicy food . . . They like to know more about India . . . how many languages you speak in India. Where are you from? Southern part of India – some of them say I have been recently there and some of them have seen Slumdog Millionaire and they ask, Is that how it is, in India? Then we say that is not how it is! That's not [emphasis] India. Slumdog Millionaire is not India!!!
在美国,大多数人都对印度有所了解。大多数时候,他们会谈论泰姬陵.他们谈论食物,印度食物,辛辣食物......。他们想更多地了解印度......你在印度会说多少种语言?你们来自哪里?印度南部--有些人说我最近去过那里,有些人看过《贫民窟的百万富翁》,他们问,印度是这样的吗?然后我们说,不是这样的!那不是[强调]印度。贫民窟的百万富翁》不是印度!

Just as Indian call agents use corporeal imaginaries to construct western clients, narratives from call centre workers and managers suggest that Americans too, draw on popular images of Bollywood, people dancing on the street, images of the Taj Mahal to construct an exotic, colourful and poverty ridden India. Neither image is necessarily true. Certainly, all Americans do not resemble the cast of Baywatch, nor do all Indians live in slums. These fantasies about the other (client/worker) are part of the enchantment (McDowell et al., 2007) of the distant global service. Corporeal imaginaries however can become destabilized during ‘real-world’ service encounters, when agent and caller ‘meet’, even though this takes place by telephone or online. This Indian CSR describes his experience of debt collection and realizing for the first time that Americans could be poor.
正如印度呼叫代理利用肉体想象来塑造西方客户一样,呼叫中心工作人员和经理的叙述也表明,美国人也利用宝莱坞的流行形象、街头跳舞的人、泰姬陵的形象来塑造一个充满异国情调、多姿多彩、贫穷落后的印度。这两种形象都不一定正确。当然,并非所有美国人都像 "海湾救生队 "的演员,也并非所有印度人都生活在贫民窟。这些对他人(客户/员工)的幻想是遥远的全球服务所带来的魅力的一部分(麦克道尔等人,2007 年)。然而,在 "现实世界 "的服务接触中,当代理人和呼叫者 "见面 "时,即使是通过电话或网络,肉体想象也会变得不稳定。这位印度企业社会责任人描述了他的追债经历,他第一次意识到美国人也可能很穷。

I used to always imagine all Americans to be rich, you know, living in a nice house with lots of money. I remember I called up a lady once in my role as debt collector. She owed $250 and when I called her to pay up. She told me she was a widow and wasn't earning, that she lived on ‘food stamps’ and did not even have $10 to put food on the table. At first I did not believe her. I mean, come on, right? This is America! I thought she was lying because as she was sounding very low and fumbling on the call. Then she started crying . . . and told me she was a single parent . . . At the end of the call . . . I realize there are . . . even poor people in America.
我以前总是想象所有的美国人都很富有,你知道,住在漂亮的房子里,有很多钱。我记得有一次我给一位女士打电话讨债。她欠了250美元 我打电话让她还钱时她告诉我,她是个寡妇,没有收入,靠 "食品券 "生活,连 10 美元的饭钱都没有。起初我并不相信她。我是说,得了吧?这里是美国!我以为她在撒谎,因为她在电话里声音很低沉,还在摸索。然后她开始哭......告诉我她是单亲家庭........ .电话结束时.我意识到美国也有......甚至是穷人。

This call agent encounters the diversity in American clientele and is forced to re-imagine his idea of the generic western client as a wealthy consumer. The idealized notion of the white, wealthy, successful suburban family is put to the test when he encounters a single mother on food stamps, contesting the way the body of the western client is imagined and experienced. These experiences become even more profoundly unsettling when the Indian call agent encounters a fellow Indian client settled in the US in a service encounter.
这位呼叫代理遇到了美国客户的多样性,并被迫重新将他心目中的普通西方客户想象为富有的消费者。当他遇到一位领取食品券的单身母亲时,他对白人、富有、成功的郊区家庭的理想化概念受到了考验,这对西方客户的身体想象和体验方式提出了质疑。当印度呼叫代理在服务中遇到一位定居在美国的印度客户时,这些经历变得更加令人不安。

Man, yes you get a lot of abuse. I remember during one call, I called up an Indian guy in the States and his name was Mr Anil Sharma. I gave my opening line ‘Can I talk to Mr Sharma, my name is Lou Forstrom’ and ask[ed] how we would like to resolve his credit issue. He literally started abusing me straight off. He started using desi abuse like ‘ben chut kisko pata raha hai?’ [What are you trying to pull over me, sister fucker?] and he abused like anything. I remember feeling really upset and wanting to abuse him back in Hindi. You would think that being Indian he would have been more understanding, but he was taking out his anger like an American.
老兄,是的,你会受到很多辱骂。我记得在一次通话中,我打电话给一个在美国的印度人,他叫 Anil Sharma 先生。我的开场白是 "请问夏尔马先生,我是卢-福斯特龙",并询问我们如何解决他的信用问题。他立刻开始辱骂我。他开始辱骂我,比如 "ben chut kisko pata raha hai?[你想对我做什么,混蛋妹妹?"之类的辱骂。我记得当时我真的很生气,想用印地语回骂他。你会以为身为印度人的他会更加善解人意,但他却像个美国人一样发泄着自己的怒火。

When the call agent used his pseudonym ‘Lou Forstrom’, he unwittingly engaged with a fellow Indian, who challenged his identity performance. Drawing on the cultural capital of being Indian and speaking Hindi, the customer destabilized the service encounter at two levels, by challenging the agent's masking of cultural identity and his linguistic performance. Cursing in Hindi draws on intimacy of familiar cultural context to devastating effect. The call agent experiences customer abuse and alienation of his identity performance at several levels, as an Indian who is trying to be an American, but has failed to be American enough for an Indian living in America. These cracks in identity performance characterize leakages through which inequalities, differences and similarities embedded within global capitalism emerge and confront idealized corporeal imaginaries.
当呼叫代理使用假名 "Lou Forstrom "时,他无意中与一位印度同胞进行了交流,后者对他的身份表现提出了挑战。这位客户利用身为印度人和讲印地语的文化资本,通过挑战座席人员对文化身份的掩饰和他的语言表达,在两个层面上破坏了服务接触的稳定性。用印地语骂人利用了熟悉的文化背景的亲和力,产生了破坏性的效果。作为一个试图成为美国人的印度人,但对于生活在美国的印度人来说,他的身份表现却不够美国化。身份表演中的这些裂缝是全球资本主义中的不平等、差异和相似性的漏网之鱼,并与理想化的肉体想象形成对峙。

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。

Acknowledgments 致谢

I am grateful for the incisive comments of the guest editors and reviewers for sharpening my ideas. To all the call centre workers who gave their time, voice and insights, thank you. This article has been a labour of love of many who helped me juggle caring for a newborn and writing multiple drafts. I am indebted in particular to my sister Pranita and mother Jana for their mentoring and intellectual engagement which allowed me to see nuances I would have otherwise missed. Keith, Dylan and Leela thank you for giving me endless joy.
感谢特邀编辑和审稿人的精辟评论,使我的观点更加犀利。感谢所有付出时间、心声和见解的呼叫中心工作人员。这篇文章凝聚了许多人的心血,他们帮助我在照顾新生儿和撰写多篇草稿之间游刃有余。我尤其要感谢我的姐姐普拉妮塔(Pranita)和母亲雅娜(Jana),是她们的指导和智慧让我看到了我可能会忽略的细微差别。Keith、Dylan 和 Leela 谢谢你们给了我无尽的快乐。

    Biography 简历

    • Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Policy Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent. With a hybrid background in social policy, sociology and social work, her research interests centre around race and ethnicity studies; sociology of the body and embodiment; transnational service work and globalization; epistemologies of the global south and post-colonial studies.
      Sweta Rajan-Rankin 博士是肯特大学社会政策、社会学和社会研究学院的高级讲师。她拥有社会政策、社会学和社会工作的混合背景,研究兴趣集中在种族和民族研究、身体和体现社会学、跨国服务工作和全球化、全球南部的认识论和后殖民研究。

      The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.