Talking class, talking race: language, class, and race in the call center industry in South Africa
Talking class, talking race: language, class, and race in the call center industry in South Africa
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谈论阶级，谈论种族：南非呼叫中心行业的语言、阶级和种族
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发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Atiqa Hachimi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Hunter;Atiqa Hachimi
在制造业就业下降的背景下，本文通过对呼叫中心行业的研究表明，英语语言能力对于后种族隔离南非的新服务业工作至关重要。根据德班的研究，我们在这项研究中表明，获得呼叫中心工作（尤其是收入最高的职位）在很大程度上取决于英语语言技能，而英语语言技能通常只有在最精英的高中才能达到。在此过程中，我们认为接受英语教育可以挑战种族劣势，但同时英语可以通过“有声望的”口音与白人的持续联系来帮助巩固白人特权。因此，该研究揭示了语言在不断变化的种族和阶级交叉性中的重要性，并在此过程中强调了劳动地理学中社会和文化视角的价值。
Against a backdrop of declining manufacturing employment, this article uses a study of the call center industry to argue that English language proficiency is central to new service jobs in post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing on research in Durban, we in this study show that access to call center work—especially the highest paid niches—is heavily mediated by English language skills generally attainable only at the most elite high schools. In doing so, we argue that access to English-medium education can challenge racial disadvantage, but simultaneously that English can help to consolidate white privilege through the continued association of a ‘prestigious’ accent with whiteness. The study accordingly reveals the importance of language in the changing intersectionality of race and class and, in doing so, underlines the value of social and cultural perspectives in labor geography.