(Im)mobilising transnational labour? patterns of spatial mobility in Indo-German software companies

Nicole Mayer-Ahuja, null

doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.6.2.0024

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 6, Issue 2

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(Im)mobilising transnational labour? patterns of spatial mobility in Indo-German software companies

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Author(s): Nicole Mayer-Ahuja

Publication date (Print): Autumn 2012

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

Do transnational economic activities necessarily coincide with intensified spatial mobility, as debates about ‘job nomads’ or ‘footloose capital’ would suggest? Drawing on the results of a sociological research project on software programming in Indo-German project teams, it will be argued that this picture is far too simplistic. On the one hand, corporate strategies of labour utilisation vary markedly even within the software sector, partly implying a spatial mobilisation, but more often an immobilisation of labour. On the other hand, spatial mobility in its transnational, everyday and biographical dimensions is not determined by corporate strategies unilaterally, but closely interrelated with national standards of economic, social, and political regulation, in this case, in Germany and India respectively.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Autumn 2012

Volume: 6

Issue: 2

Pages: 24-44

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.6.2.0024

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.6.2.0024

SO-VID: 4ba00492-033b-4dcd-b7b0-71c17a0f61b8

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History

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Aspray, W., F. Mayadas, M. Y. Vardi (eds) (2006) Globalization and Offshoring of Software. A Report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force , Association of Computing Machinery.

[2] Benner, C. (2001) ‘Jenseits der Greencard. Aus- und Weiterbildung in den IT-Berufen’, WSI-Mitteilungen 11:711–717.

[3] Biao, X. (2007): Global ‘Body Shopping’: An Indian Labor System in the Information Technology Industry , Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

[4] Devi, S. U. (2002) ‘Globalisation, Information Technology and Asian Indian Women in the US’, Economic and Political Weekly , October 26:4421–4428.

[5] D'Mello, M. & S. Sahay (2008) ‘Betwixt and Between? Exploring Mobilities in a Global Workplace in India’ C. Upadhya & A. R. Vasavi, (eds) In an Outpost of the Global Economy. Work and Workers in India's Information Technology Industry , London, New York & New Delhi: Routledge:77–100.

[6] Feuerstein, P. (2012) Viele Wege führen nach Indien – Reorganisation von Arbeit im Zuge der Internationalisierung der IT-Industrie , Göttingen: Universitätsverlag.

[7] Friedman, T. L. (2007) The world is flat. A brief history of the globalized world in the 21st century . New York: Penguin.

[8] Fromhold-Eisebith, M. (2006) ‘Infotech Industries and Regional Disparities in India’, S. Raju, M. S. Kumar & S. Corbridge, Stuart (eds): Colonial and Post-Colonial Geographies of India , New Delhi, Thousand Oaks & London: Sage:162–181.

[9] Fuller, C. & H. Narasimhan (2007) ‘Information Technology Professionals and the New-Rich Middle Class in Chennai (Madras)’, Modern Asian Studies 41 (1): 121–150.

[10] Harvey, D. (1990) ‘Between Space and Time: Reflections on the Geographical Imagination’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers , 80 (3), September:418–434.

[11] Harvey, D. (2006) Spaces of Global Capitalism. Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development , London & New York: Verso.

[12] Harvey, D. (2006b) ‘Notes Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development’, D. Harvey (2006) Spaces of Global Capitalism. Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development , London & New York: Verso:71–116.

[13] Heitzman, J. (1999) ‘Corporate Strategy and Planning in the Science City: Bangalore as “Silicon Valley”’, Economic and Political Weekly , January 30.

[14] Heitzman, J. (2004) Network City. Planning the Information Society in Bangalore , Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.

[15] Marx, Karl [1983a]: ‘Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie’, K. Marx & F. Engels, Werke , Bd. 42, Berlin: Dietz:48–768.

[16] Mayer-Ahuja, N. (2003) Wieder dienen lernen? Vom westdeutschen “Normalarbeitsverhältnis” zu prekärer Beschäftigung seit 1973 , Berlin: Edition Sigma.

[17] Mayer-Ahuja, N. & P. Feuerstein (2008): ‘“Everywhere is Becoming the Same”? Labour Utilisation, Regulation and the Tensions Inherent in Transnational IT Production’, Work, Organisation, Labour and Globalisation 2 (2):162–178.

[18] Mayer-Ahuja, N. (2011) Grenzen der Homogenisierung. IT-Arbeit zwischen ortsgebundener Regulierung und transnationaler Unternehmensstrategie , Frankfurt & New York: Campus.

[19] Mayer-Ahuja, Nicole (2011b): ‘“I felt like a kid in front of them”: Work organization and life cycle in Indo-German software programming’, R. Behal, Rana, A. Mah, Alice & B. Fall, (eds) Rethinking work. Global historical and sociological perspectives , New Delhi: Tulika Books:10–22.

[20] Nair, J. (2005) The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore's 20th Century , Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.

[21] Pries, L. (2005) Kräftefelder der Strukturierung und Regulierung von Erwerbsarbeit. Überlegungen zu einer entwicklungs- und institutionenorientierten Sozialwissenschaft der Erwerbsarbeit , Bochum: SOAPS-Papers 1 (4).

[22] Raghuram, P. (2004) ‘Migration, Gender, and the IT Sector: Intersecting Debates’, Women's Studies International Forum 27:163–176.

[23] Rao B.M. (1999) ‘Uneven Globalization? Organizational Networks and India's Niche in the Global Software Industry’, Paper presented at the Comparative and Historical Graduate Student Training Retreat, UCLA, May 8–9.

[24] Saxenian, A. L. (2004) ‘The Silicon Valley Connection. Transnational Networks and Regional Development in Taiwan, China and India’, D'Costa & Sridharan (eds.), 164–192.

[25] Saxenian, A. L. (2006) International Mobility of Engineers and the Rise of Entrepreneurship in the Periphery , Research Paper 2006 (142), World Institute for Development Economics Research, United Nations University, November.

[26] SOFI, IAB, ISF, INIFES (Hg., 2005): Berichterstattung zur sozioökonomischen Entwicklung in Deutschland. Arbeit und Lebensweisen. Erster Bericht. Wiesbaden (Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften).

[27] Upadhya, C. (2004) ‘A New Transnational Capitalist Class? Capital Flows, Business Networks and Entrepreneurs in the Indian Software Industry’, Economic and Political Weekly , November 27:5141–5151.

[28] Upadhya, C. & A.R. Vasavi (2006) Work, Culture, and Sociality in the Indian IT Industry: A Sociological Study, Final Report, submitted to Indo-Dutch Programme for Alternatives in Development, August 2006. Accessed on September 29, 2009 from: http://www.union-network.org/uniindep.nsf/863b5ce2fa055934c1256800002e5ab0/40601d743f5e3567c125723b0034587d/$FILE/NIAS-IDPAD%20IT%20Study%20Final%20Report.pdf.

[29] Upadhya, C. (2008) ‘Rewriting the Code. Software Professionals and the Reconstitution of Indian Middle Class Identity’, C. Jaffrelot, & P. von der Veer (eds.): Patterns of Middle Class Consumption in India and China , Los Angeles et al.:Sage:55–88.

[30] Varma, R. & D. R. Varma (2009) ‘The Making of Indian Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the US’, Economic and Political Weekly , January 17:64–69.

[31] Wikipedia (2009): Greencard (Deutschland) . http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greencard_(Deutschland).