Neutral Accent

A. Aneesh is Director of the Institute of World Affairs and Associate Professor of Sociology and Global Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He is the author of Virtual Migration: the Programming of Globalization, also published by Duke University Press.

• Acknowledgments  ixPrologue: One World, Diverse Itineraries  11. Glimpsing an Urban Future: Divergent Tracks of Gurgaon  132. Inside a Call Center: Otherworldly Passages  353. Neutral Accent  534. System Identities: Divergent Itineraries and Uses of Personality  775. Nightly Clashes: Diurnal Body, Nocturnal Labor, Neutral Markets  101Epilogue: The Logic of Indifference  127References  137Index  151

"This insightful look at the underbelly of globalisation reveals a workplace that is sustained by the painful "differentiations" that have been imposed on its workers.... Where his critique of globalisation succeeds best is in creating a convincing framework that exposes the "disintegration of the self from its place of socialization and meaning" brought about by the mechanisms of globalisation, in which both global workers and consumers become entities targeted for profit." - Lalita Murty (Times Higher Education) “Aneesh’s book is a delight to read. He writes with the ease and knowledge of a uniquely-positioned repeat ethnographer due to his long personal and intellectual investment in the region. His methodology includes not only interviews with workers and managers, but also his own experience as an employee at a call centre in Gurgaon. His empathy for and connection with the participants in his study allows readers to experience their aspirations and challenges too” - Kiran Mirchandani (South Asia) "...this book is an excellent contribution to a growing and significant body of literature on globalizing processes and the Indian call center industry."  - J.K.T. Basi (American Journal of Sociology) "I got more than I bargained for as I found geography, law, marketing and biology also thrown into the discussion and Aneesh was providing me with a tour de force as a Renaissance man." - Peter K.W. Tan (Asian Journal of Social Science) "Neutral Accent is a tightly argued and well-researched account of a dense and unruly phenomenon, and should be essential reading for scholars of globalization, work, virtuality, and identity." - Mathangi Krishnamurthy (Anthropological Quarterly) "In Neutral Accent, Aneesh has produced a well-written, clear, and concise manuscript that unravels how communication actually works in so-called centers of cross-cultural interaction. He provides several important and creative contributions to our knowledge about globalization, inequality, identity construction, and work, and does so by locating the multiple disconnections that are reproduced when people of different groups virtually meet."- Victoria Reyes (Contemporary Sociology) "Powerful . . . Neutral Accent admirably succeeds in A. Aneesh's stated objective to use the experiences of communication workers in India to broaden the analytical reach and critique the underlying assumptions of cultural studies, transnational feminism, and communication studies." - Radha S. Hegde (Journal of Asian Studies)