Comments on: Xiang Biao’s Global Body Shopping Spree.

By: Web 2.0 - Marx v. Socrates (what would Sapir say?) « Culture Matters

Web 2.0 - Marx v. Socrates (what would Sapir say?) « Culture Matters — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:34:18 +0000

[...] It’s a place to try out works in progress. It also gives you a forum for publishing shorter or longer versions of pieces that you’ve published in other formats. (Sorry, I’m [...]

By: ckelty

ckelty — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:52:14 +0000

funny. next fall, entering freshmen will have been born in or after 1989. For them, Masco’s book is the key to understanding every previous generation…

By: Strong

Strong — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:44:44 +0000

LLWynn: I actually used Masco’s monograph in my contemporary anthropology course this spring, although we didn’t read the whole book. Students really liked it and found it compelling. I remember distinctly one student saying that he thought ‘nuclear bombs, what will the anthropologists think of next?’ in a dismissive fashion, but then found Masco’s arguments stimulating, especially the sections on ‘eco-nationalism.’ I am inclined to think that undergraduates in the US will encounter this book with the fascination that comes from reading about aspects of their own childhood, and so the arguments about the uncanny or the return of the repressed may work especially well for kids who may have dim memories of The Day After or of the weird presence of ‘fall out shelter’ signs in their hometowns. The week we read this actually I also had students over to my place for a viewing of Dr. Strangelove. So we did this whole week on Cold War culture and power in the 20th century basically. Amazingly, then, when Martha Kaplan gave a talk here recently about public water supplies in the U.S. and elsewhere, and in particular, about the controversies surrounding fluoridation, there was this moment of recognition that was quite funny for the Finnish students!

By: LLWynn

LLWynn — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:03:10 +0000

Thanks very much for these two reviews. I’m always asking my anthropologist friends “what’s hot?” and “what can be assigned in undergraduate classes?” so it’s great to get new input here. Just bought both books online and looking forward to reading them. In your next review, though, I would love to see you bring to our attention an example or two of “what’s not hot,” (even if new) “what is a terrible example of what anthropology today,” and “what simply wouldn’t work for undergraduates.” It would be fun to see that, although I understand that you might wish to convey such public sentiments in more delicate terms.

By: ckelty

ckelty — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 03:45:01 +0000

fuji… so great to hear that these missives are useful… sometimes I (we) wonder :)

as to your question, Xiang’s view seems to be that bodyshopping is distinctively Indian (and he’s from PRC.. for what that’s worth) and I think I agree. The transnational part certainly makes a difference– although in my review in PoLar I think I suggested that a comparison with Coyotes who move immigrants across the US border and the sex trade from SE Asia would make for great comparisons… but the other part is that IT work draws from particular segments of Indian society, and returns wealth to them in particular ways (e.g. especially through dowry) and that this creates a distinctive system. More importantly, I think that Xiang’s book is clear and well ordered enough that it could serve as an excellent starting point for a new generation of comparative ethnography of quasi-formal labor systems, something that I don’t think is really happening yet.

By: Fuji Lozada

Fuji Lozada — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:02:58 +0000

Yes, good review; I just ordered Xiang’s book for my college’s library, and ILL’d it for myself! I know I should wait and read it for myself, but how is “body shopping” different from other kinds of labor contracting services? I’m thinking about the labor contractor who goes from village to village in China to hire teenage girls for the factories in Shenzhen, for example. I understand that clearly the transnational aspect makes it different, at least in scale.
You guys are a great resource in finding good things to read. I’m at a small liberal arts college in a department of 4 (and only two of whom are sociocultural), so your postings are invaluable in my avoiding brain death.

By: ckelty

ckelty — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:58:28 +0000

oh. sorry about that. Well, in a way that’s what the book is for… but a short answer would be that it is distinctive labor market practice, and a sketchy one at that, in which a usually Indian intermediary firm hires a bunch of “qualified” Indian IT employees, deals with immigration and visa issues, and in turn sends them off to work for EU,Aus or US IT firms. Often the intermediary can be taking up to half (or more) of the Employee’s wages, but they also take all the risk in terms of immigration and labor-market surpluses. It leads to lots of unemployed Indian IT workers (“benched”) milling about places like Central New Jersey and Southern Silicon Valley waiting for IT firms to take up the slack. There are all kinds of horrible results, but it has been central to making Indian labor so globally visible and accessible in the IT industry…

By: oneman

oneman — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:48:19 +0000

Great review, except one thing: what’s bodyshopping? I’m an ex-marketing employee for an IT staffing firm, so the word has some familiarity, but for the average reader?