Abstract of

Outsourcing and Digitized Work Spaces: Some Implications of the Intersections of Globalization, Development, and Work Practices

Beatrice Quarshie Smith

Drawing on an ongoing project examining the literacies prevalent at an outsourcing site, this article explores the changing nature of workplace practices enabled by new information and communication technologies. It also examines the complex geopolitical dynamics of these practices, the discourses of development, and globalization. The author identifies the tensions and contradictions that the demands for “new” work and new work practices create for communities as they seek access to the benefits of globalization.

The key arguments of the article are that

• Cyber work and its practices in these new locations have social, cultural, and political implications

• Workplace studies must move beyond studies of how technologies are shaping work in industrialized economies if we are going to understand work in the 21st century

• Research and advocacy offers communities possibilities for creating work spaces that are helpful to sustainable development but which also mitigate some of the consequences of globalization

Abstract from Smith, B. (2006, April). Outsourcing and Digitized Work Spaces: Some Implications of the Intersections of Globalization, Development, and Work Practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(7), 596–607. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.49.7.5