Subjects, Subjectivity, and Subjectification in Call Center Work The Doings of Doings

• Published in: Journal of contemporary ethnography Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 351 - 377
• Main Author: Winiecki, Donald J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications 01.08.2007; Sage; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Anthropology of work; Call centers; Call centres; Compliance; Ethnography; Ethnology; Field work; Labor; Organizational behavior; Post-structuralism; Postindustrial societies; Poststructuralism; Self; Social relations. Intercultural and interethnic relations. Collective identity; Social sciences; Social structure and social relations; Subjectivity; Telecommunications; Telephone; Work place; Workplaces; subjectivity; subjectification; poststructuralism; call center; labor; Service Industry; Place of work; Telecommunication; Labour; subjectivity: poststructuralism
• ISSN: 0891-2416; 1552-5414
• DOI: 10.1177/0891241606293141

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