Description
Book SynopsisJan M. Padios examines the massive call center industry in the Philippines in the context of globalization, race, gender, transnationalism, and postcolonialism, outlining how it has become a significant site of efforts to redefine Filipino identity and culture, the Philippine nation-state, and the value of Filipino labor.
Trade Review"As an example of the transnational turn in Asian American studies, Padios’s book gives us insight into how work is being reinvented, and the ways in which this reinvention has muddled distinctions between the United States and a place like the Philippines." -- Min Hyoung Song * Public Books *
"Jan M. Padios describes with colorful detail the ways that neoliberalism draws upon Filipino/American relatability to garner profits, cheaply pay Filipinos, and serve U.S.-based customers within the call center industry." -- Giselle Cunanan * Ethnic and Racial Studies *
"
A Nation on the Line is relevant to audiences interested in Filipino diasporic migrations, transnational Filipino identities, and transnational labor studies writ large. The author provides an analysis of the global political economy that echoes other work on the production and management of global Filipino labor; however, this work simultaneously lends a clarity to the subjective identities and affective and relational aspect of labor that has yet to be fully explored among this group of workers." -- Fumilayo Showers * American Journal of Sociology *
"This book is an important contribution towards understanding how the new communication technologies are affecting everyday life in the Philippines. . . . It is stylistically excellent, and Padios presents complex and revealing truths in deceptively simple language." -- Raul Pertierra * Journal of Southeast Asian Studies *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Listening Between the Lines: Relational Labor, Productive Intimacy, and the Affective Contradictions of Call Center Work 34
2. Contesting Skill and Value: Race, Gender, and Filipino/American Relatability in the Neoliberal Nation-State 63
3 Inside Vox Elite: Call Center Training and the Limits of Filipino/American Relatability 93
4. Service with a Style: Aesthetic Pleasures, Productive Youth, and the Politics of Consumption 131
5. Queering the Call Center: Sexual Politics, HIV/AIDS, and the Crisis of (Re)Production 157
Conclusion 181
Notes 189
Bibliography 213
Index 225
