Quarshie Smith, B: Reading and Writing in the Global Workpla

Beatrice Quarshie Smith is an associate professor of Literacy Studies in the Department of Humanities at Michigan Technological University where she is also the Director of the Intensive English as a Second Language Program. Her research interests include explorations of the relationships among globalization, gender, English language literacies and work-related practices.

Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace: Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana by Beatrice Quarshie Smithexplores the conditions that underlie the outsourcing of US data-processing work in Ghana. Quarshie Smith describes the convergence and interplay of different socio-economic forces, conducting a comparative study of two distinctly different workplaces to reveal significant insights about problems of organizational hierarchy and management-employee relations in the cross-cultural environments of out-sourced business and IT process work.

AcknowledgmentsList of TablesAcronymsPart One: Preface and BackgroundPreface: Gender, Biography, and the Researcher: Locating the "Self" in the Study of "New" WorkspacesChapter 1: Gender and Globalizing Processes"Knowledge" Work and "Development"The Sites, Research Paradigms and the IssuesWorkplace Literacies and "New" WorkOverview of the BookChapter 2: The Ethnographic Context: Ghana Fifty-Five Years after IndependenceThe Nation State: a Political, Social and Economic EvolutionLiteracies, Development and WorkThe Companies, Management Personnel and Research ParticipantsPart Two: Gender in the Globalization DebateChapter 3: Gender Politics and Women in Ghana: A Short "Herstory"Women and EducationWomen and WorkWomen and Work in New TimesConclusion: Transnational Feminist Activism and Cross Border ArticulationsChapter 4: Gender, Knowledge and "New" WorkGender in the Globalization DebateDevelopment, Gender and Macro/Micro-Analyses of GlobalizationFeminisms, Politics, Labels and Discourses on GenderGender and NeoliberalismGender, Technology and Globalizing ProcessesGender, Knowledge, and "New" WorkPart Three: Research PracticesChapter 5: Multi-sited Ethnography and Hybrid SpacesSeeking EntryEmpirical Material CollectionDesigning research PracticesThe Field and Fieldwork in "Ethnographic" researchEthnographic Practices in Hybrid EnvironmentsEthnography and Virtual Work: Other conceptions of "Field"Methodological ChallengesEthical Tensions in Research in Hybrid SettingsResearching Women's Lives on and off LinePart Four: Literacy Practices in the "New" Workspaces of the Global SouthChapter 6: Outsourcing as "Glocalization:" Material Practices and Fluid WorkspacesThe "Laborscape:" Continuities and Discontinuities in GeographiesThe Network and the Transformation of WorkGlocalizing/hybridizing Labor Practices: Shaping Work CulturesWhy Outsourcing?: Work, Gender and Identity in the 21st Century GhanaWork, Desire and the ImaginationChapter 7: Literacies of Outsourcing: "Scapes" and "Flows" of "New" WorkLiteracy, Self-making and the Co-construction of Cyber WorkersRecruiting Cyber Workers: Aims, Values, and Realities of Literacies in UseSituated Literacies: Contexts and PracticesOnline LiteraciesOffline Literacies at WorkLiteracies and the Negotiation of Asymmetrical Power RelationsPart Five: Conclusion-New Workplace Practices for New TimesChapter 8: The "New" World of Work: Women and Workplace Literacy Practices-A Social PracticePerspectiveEducation, Knowledge and WorkImplications of NetworksWork and the Imagination: Of "Scapes" and "Flows"Is Globalized Work Empowering for the Women who Work at CTI and CDN?Policy and Practice: Some ImplicationsContributions of the ProjectUnfinished Business: Workplace Literacy and GlobalizationRepresentation and Legitimization: Nola's QuestionNOTESAPPENDIX:A: RESEARCH QUESTIONSB: INTERVIEW GUIDEC: LETTER TO PARTICIPANTSD: CONSENT FORME: SAMPLE FLOOR PLANSF: SAMPLE KEY WORDSG: SAMPLE PAY STUBBIBILIOGRAPHYINDEXABOUT THE AUTHOR