ABSTRACT
In the past two decades, several millions of IT-enabled services jobs have been relocated or ‘offshored’ from the US and Europe to, in particular, low cost economies around the world. Most of these jobs so far have landed in South and South-East Asia, with India and the Philippines receiving the bulk of them. This has caused profound changes in the international division of labour, and has had correspondingly wide social and economic effects.
This book examines how this ‘next wave in globalization’ affects people and places in South and South-East Asia. It brings together twelve case studies from India, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong and Thailand, and explores how and for whom services offshoring creates opportunities, triggers local economic transformations and produces challenges. This book in addition compares how different countries take part in this ‘second global shift’, investigates service-sector driven economic development from a historical perspective, and engages with the question whether and to what extent services offer a new promising avenue of sustained economic growth for developing countries. It argues that service-led development in developing countries is not easy for all the workers involved, or a guaranteed path to sustained economic development and prosperity.
This volume stands out from other books in the field in its exploration of the social and economic outcomes in the cities and countries where services have been located. Based on cutting edge empirical research and original data, the volume offers a state-of-the-art contribution to this growing debate. The book provides valuable insights for students, scholars and professionals interested in services offshoring, socio-economic development and contemporary transformations in South and South-East Asia.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter 1|14 pages
The local impact of services offshoring in South and Southeast Asia
part 1|62 pages
The latest wave in globalization
chapter 3|17 pages
Services-led economic development
chapter 5|17 pages
Inter-organizational linkages, global value chains and national innovation systems
part 2|44 pages
Capitalizing on (offshore) services in the shadow of giants
chapter 6|15 pages
From the ‘workshop of the world' to the ‘office of the world'?
chapter 8|11 pages
Where footloose jobs and mobile people meet
part 3|46 pages
Labour and industrial organization in the latest wave of globalization
chapter 10|15 pages
How work in the BPO sector affects employability
part 4|48 pages
Offshore services and the making of a new middle class