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RoutledgeReview of h~ternatiol~dolitical ECOMOI?ZY:4 Noveinber 2002: 650-674 Taylor &Francis Group

Globalization, governmentalityand expertise: creating a call

centre labour force

W e n d y L a m er

University of Auckland

ABSTRACT

Through a case study of the New Zealand Call Centre Attraction Initiative

this paper draws attention to the forms of expertise and knowledge prac-

tices through which low wage labour forces are being constituted in the

name of 'globalization'. Drawing on the neo-Foucauldian literature on 'gov-

ernmentality', it identifies the significance of 'post-welfarist' expertise,

including human resources companies, training providers, industry asso-

ciations and information providers, and shows these private sector actors

are beginning to usurp the role historically played by state agencies. Close

attention is paid to how this expertise is assembled around a particular

strategy-

he establishment of a toll free number to recruit call centre work-ers - intended to mobilize mothers, migrants and students, all of whom

have been historically marginalized from core labour force participation.

KEYWORDS

Globalization; governmentality; expertise; call centres; labour

INTRODUCTION

This paper examines the labour force implications of a recent govern-

ment-promoted attempt to establish New Zealand as an international call

centre location serving Asia-Pacific markets. The call centre strategy

exemplifies a distinct move away from the economic and social policies

of the post-war period. During the earlier period governmental ambi-

tions were usually premised on the building of a national economy

through the exploitation of natural resources and/o r development of a

domestic manufacturing sector, thereby ensuring minimum wages and

maintaining full employment for men. In contrast, development strate-gies based on call centres aspire to link locally based service sector activ-

ities into global flows and networks, and foster low wage and feminised

Review of Itztevnational Political EcononzyISSN 0969-2290 print/ISSN 1466-4526 online O 002 Taylor & Francis Ltd

http:/ /www.tandf.co.uk

DOI: 10.1080/0969229022000021844

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L A R N E R : G L O B A L I Z A T I O N , G O V E R N M E N T A L I T Y A N D E X P ER T IS E

forms of employment. In this regard it can be argued call centres are

a 'strategic instantiation' of the gendering of globalization (Sassen,

1996). They are the contemporary equivalent of earlier transforma-

tions such as women's incorporation into agricultural production, andinto manufacturing jobs in export processing zones. Most immediately,

therefore, the paper makes a contribution to literatures examining the

gendered consequences of globalized economic activities premised on

information and communications technologies (see also Mitter and

Rowbotham, 1995).

Too often, however, analyses of globalization have overlooked the

contingent processes through which new political-economic forms are

constituted, and the diverse means by which people and places become

incorporated into the flows and networks of the global economy. Rather,the focus has been on the effects of globalization with, for example, fem-

inist studies highlighting the differential consequences of global restruc-

turing for men and women. More recently, influenced by poststructuralist

accounts of discourse and subjectivity, feminists have begun to rethink

the process of globalization itself (see, for examples, Marchand and

Runyan, 2000; Peterson, 1996). Gibson-Graham (1996) and Kingfisher

(forthcoming), among others, highlight the gendered nature of the glob-

alization discourse, and show how this discourse privileges certain under-

standings of spaces, economies and subjects over others. These effortsresonate with a broader shift in the social science literature on global-

ization in which it is emphasized that, rather than being a 'new reality',

the 'globalisation paradigm' is actively produced and disseminated by

business people, state actors, management theorists and others (Leyshon,

1997; McMichael, 1996; Tickell, 2000).

This paper builds on themes from these contemporary feminist and

post-structuralist accounts of globalization. However, whereas other such

contributions tend to focus on discourse, the emphasis herein is on the

forms of expertise and practices through which new political-economic

objects and subjects are constituted. Drawing from the governmentality

literature, the analysis pays close attention to rationales and strategies

through which a global call centre labour force is being imagined and

constituted in New Zealand. It identifies the significance of 'post-

welfarist'l expertise, including human resources companies, training pro-

viders, industry associations and information providers, and shows these

actors are beginning to usurp the role historically played by state agen-

cies. Close attention is paid to the strategies used by the private sector

organizations to mobilize mothers, migrants and students - all of whom

have been historically marginalized from core labour force participation.

In this way the paper draws attention to the forms of expertise and

knowledge practices through which feminised labour forces are consti-

tuted in the name of 'globalization'.


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REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

The analysis is developed as follows. Following a brief overview of

relevant literatures on globalization, governance and expertise, the paper

introduces and contextualizes the New Zealand Call Centre Attraction

Initiative (CCAI). It discusses how a specific governmental problemati-zation - namely a potential shortage of call centre workers - has emerged

as a consequence of the initiative. The next section identifies the array

of actors and organizations that have come together around this prob-

lematization. The discussion then focuses on a specific strategy - the

establishment of a toll free number designed to recruit call centre workers

- in order to illustrate how these post-welfarist experts are inventing

novel ways to enrol subjects in their ambitions. In the conclusion it is

emphasized that the case study expands the analytical focus of research

on globalization by enhancing knowledge of how globalizing processescome to be embedded in national space, and showing that feminised

labour forces are actively created through the efforts of multiple actors

and agencies. It also makes a distinctive contribution to the govern-

mentality literature by extending the discussion of expertise from the

forms associated with the welfare state to those associated with a largely

private sector arena.

GLOBALIZATION, GOVERNMENTALITY

A N D EXPERTISE

It is now widely appreciated that claims about economic globalization

are often over-stated (Boyer and Drache, 1996; Hirst and Thompson,

1996; Sassen, 1996a). There is much greater understanding of the

multi-dimensional processes encompassed by the term 'globalization'

(Appadurai 1996). A vast array of case study analyses have also begun

to highlight the uneven and contradictory ways in which different

regions, institutions, organizations, industries and social groups are incor-

porated into global political-economic processes (for diverse examples

see Cox, 1997; Germain, 2000; Marchand and Runyan, 2000). Thus one

consequence of the debates between 'strong globalists' and 'global scep-

tics' has been to shift attention away from the question of whether or

not globalization is a 'true' reflection of the 'real world', to that of how

this explanatory framework comes to have the power it does. As Jessop

(1999) points out, we need to understand the 'meta-narratives' that

constitute political-economic space as global.

Whereas others have stressed the discursive aspects of globalization

(Gibson-Graham, 1996; Larner, 1998; Leyshon, 1997; Herod et nl., 1998)'

the analysis herein is more concerned with the forms of expertise and

techniques through which economic objects and subjects are being consti-

tuted in new forms (Dean, 1999; Miller and Rose, 1990; Rose, 1999). The

neo-Foucauldian literature known as 'governmentality' informs a claim


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that governance has a practical dimension downplayed in many existing

accounts of globalization. To understand changing governmental forma-

tions it is necessary to analyse not only political reasoning, as made

manifest in reports, speeches and policy documents, but also the morepragmatic constitution of organizations, institutions and programmes

and the techniques on which these depend. As Rose and Miller (1992:

175) explain:

Government is intrinsically linked to the activities of expertise,

whose role is not that of weaving an all-pervasive web of 'social

control', but of enacting assorted attempts at the calculated admin-

istration of diverse aspects of conduct through countless, often

competing, local tactics of education, persuasion, inducement,

management, incitement, motivation and encouragement.

Most existing discussions of governmental expertise focus on the experts

of the welfare state. Dean (1999: 127-30) describes how this state form

arose out of particular formulations of social 'problems', based on the

disciplinary knowledges of public health, welfare economics, sociology,

social administration, social work and social policy, which provided the

'intellectual machinery' for understanding the social in particular forms.

In turn, the knowledge produced by these disciplinary experts became

closely linked with the activities of professionals and bureaucrats locatedin government departments, giving rise to particular institutional spaces

such as schools, courts and hospitals. As Dean (1999: 133) explains, in

this way a particular reading of the social came to be inscribed within

a centralized and co-ordinating state. This analytical approach has given

rise to a rich body of literature encompassing topics such as education

(Hunter, 1994), crime (Garland, 1997; O'Malley, 1999), unemployment

(Dean, 1995; Walters, 2000)' poverty (Procacci, 1991), psychiatry (Rose

1996) and social welfare (Cruikshank, 1999), among others.

This literature has also drawn attention to contemporary reconfigura-

tions of rule. At one level, it is reasonably well-understood that con-

temporary changes in state forms and governing practices, frequently

captured under the label 'neo-liberalism', have been associated with a

shift in the dominant forms of governmental expertise. Marketization

has involved a new valorization of financial, administrative and tech-

nical experts, often caricatured in assertions about the rise of 'bean

counters'. The growing power of Treasury and Finance departments has

been observed by public policy analysts, as has the rising importance of

audit (Power, 1997) and the new significance of contractualism (Yeatman,

1995). It is also recognized that the experts of the welfare state, such as

social scientists, professionals and state bureaucrats, are increasingly

governed by the rationales of competition, accountability and consumer

demand (Rose, 1993: 285). Many of these social experts have been trans-


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L A R N E R : G L O B A L I Z A T I O N , G O V E R N M E N T A L I T Y AND E X P E R T I S E

Correspondingly, the globalizing of economies, and the labour forces

that emerge, are likely to involve multiple actors, novel techniques, and

more idiosyncratic processes than is often recognized.

The remainder of the paper examines these claims in detail through a

case study analysis of the New Zealand Call Centre Attraction Initiative.

It identifies the 'post-welfarist' configuration of expertise that has come

together around the perceived problem of labour shortages in New

Zealand call centres. In choosing to work the theoretical arguments

through a specific case study, a particular kind of methodological

approach is being adopted. As Rose (1999: 55) explains, 'Studies of gov-

ernmentality practice a certain kind of empiricism (which) argue for the

importance of a kind of experimental moment in thought, a moment

when thought tries to realize itself in the real'. Adopting this kind of

empiricism requires analysis of arguments, strategies and tactics in their

own terms. This is not simply description, but nor does such an approach

pre-suppose hidden motives, class interests or conspiratorial forces. The

aim is to be 'diagnostic' - to establish the singularity of particular strate-

gies, and to reconstruct the problematizations to which policies, pro-

grammes and techniques are presented as solutions (Rose and Valverde,

1998).

Furthermore, the methodology of the project reflects the new assem-

blages of expertise that are the object of enquiry. If scholars of advanced

liberalism are to follow their analytical object, the emergence of

hybridised 'social' domains will require new methodological strategies.

In this particular case, examining the making of a call centre labour force

required considerable involvement with private sector actors. In addi-

tion to primary data generated from more traditional social science

sources (policy documents, newspaper articles, industry reports, key

informant interviews), the author has been attending CCAI meetings as

a non-participant observer since mid-1999. These meetings provided

valuable insights into the ways in which key government and industry

actors understand their activities and their relationships with each other,

and inform many of the observations made in this paper. Description

and analysis of the toll free number was facilitated by an agreement with

Adecco - the human resources company involved - who provided gen-

erous information about their strategy and access to their (privatized)

database on the grounds that the research would generate wider atten-

tion for their activities. Rigour has been assured by cross-referencing and

triangulation of data sources whenever possible. The broader point is

that 'post-welfarist' research projects may well require 'post-welfarist'methodologies.


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THE NEW ZEALAND CALL CENTRE

ATTRACTION INITIATIVE

Many discussions of economic globalization focus on paradigmatic sites

such as 'global cities' and position trans-national corporations, financial

markets and high skill 'global nomads' as emblematic subjects (Sassen,

2000: 216). However, globalizing processes can be identified in locations

other than major business and financial centres, and involve subjects

other than high wage, high skill workers. In this regard, it is useful to

recall long-standing literatures on the restructuring of agriculture and

manufacturing - particularly the analyses of a 'global assembly line' that

show how poor women in relatively marginalized places come to be

incorporated into global production processes (see, for example, Ward,

1990). The establishment of trans-national call centres as a means of

providing low cost business, financial and personal services is another

'low end' example of globalization.

Call centres exemplify the new ways in which firms are taking advan-

tage of opportunities offered by information and communications tech-

nologies to relocate service sector activities internationally. Other high

profile cases include off-shore data processing and software develop-

ment (Huws et al., 1999), as well as the more established examples of

back offices and teleworking (Mitter and Rowbotham, 1995). These

phenomenon are underpinned by technological advances that allow the

physical relocation of jobs and organizational restructuring that has

resulted in a new emphasis on the out-sourcing of 'non-core' activities.

Many firms now look for inexpensive service sector workers across a

variety of geographical locations, giving rise to a new international divi-

sion of labour in which workers in low wage regions service the activities

of firms in industrialized countries (Wacjman, 1991). Not surprisingly,

given the activities involved, women are numerically dominant in the

sectors and occupations most dramatically effected by these changes.

Existing studies of call centre employment, for example, consistently

show that 60-70 percent of workers are women, although there is some

variability across the sector (see, amongst others, Belt et al., 1999; Frenkel

et al., 1999; Taylor and Bain; 1999).

New Zealand is only one of many places where national and local

governments are devoting considerable energy to attracting foreign

investment into call centres in the hope they will provide new oppor-

tunities in previously marginal a reas .The New Zealand Call Centre

Attraction Initiative (CCAI) was launched in mid-1999, and is explicitly

located in broader governmental ambitions to transform New Zealand

in to a 'knowledge based economy'. As Walters (forthcoming) points

out, the notion of a knowledge economy is interesting because it occu-

pies an ambiguous position between existing fact and emergent reality.


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which was better known among potential investors, and from lower

wage Asia-Pacific destinations such as the Philippines and India (see The

Economist, 28 April 2001). The lack of direct incentives also proved a

considerable obstacle to turning 'leads' into 'investments'. Consequently,to date, only four companies have located their international call centre

activities in New Zealand as a result of the initiative. Three of these are

in major cities, and the fourth (which employs only ten people) is in a

small provincial centre.

That said, participants in the CCAI remain optimistic, and have recently

developed a new organizational structure and revised their relationship

with Trade NZ to better support their marketing activities. More-

over, the intent of this paper is not to assess the likely long-term suc-

cess or failure of the CCAI, nor is it provide a quantitative account ofthe changing demography of call centre employment in New Zealand.

Rather, it is to show how the CCAI gave rise to a particular problem -

a perceived shortage of people to fill international call centre jobs - and

to examine the forms of expertise and techniques that came together in

the effort to solve this problem. Of course, in addition to being a response

to the labour force needs of international investors, the strategies dis-

cussed have also bolstered the profile of domestic call centres. Indeed,

one of the ongoing tensions in the New Zealand initiative has been the

failure of the participants to distinguish between the differing demandsof domestic and international call centres (Larner, 2002: 23). However it

is important to note that those involved in the strategies discussed below

continue to rationalize their activities in terms of 'globalization' and the

perceived need to attract international investors.

Concern about the size of the potential call centre labour force in New

Zealand surfaced at an early stage. Even at the time the CCAI was

launched, one commentator suggested New Zealand might have already

exhausted the supply of trainable and interested people. Moreover the

success, or otherwise, of the CCAI is highly dependent on the provision

of a suitable labour force for prospective international investors. Most

immediately, this is because labour costs account for approximately two-

thirds of the costs of running a call centre no matter where they are

located. More specifically, however, in the absence of the incentives and

tax breaks offered to call centre investors elsewhere, low labour costs

(particularly given the current exchange rate) were a key variable in

ensuring the success of the initiative. Indeed, there were union com-

plaints about the initial framing of the CCAI in that it presented low

wages as the crucial point of difference from potential competitors in

Australia and elsewhere. While there has been a deliberate distancing

from this earlier version, reflected in a greater emphasis on education

and skills, low wages and the weakness of unions in New Zealand con-

tinue to be explicitly identified as advantages for international investors.


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L A R N E R : G L O B A L I Z A T I O N , G O V E R N M E N T A L I T Y AND E X P E R T I S E

The difficulties associated with constructing an international call centre

labour force in New Zealand should not be under-estimated. Already

there are reports of recruitment difficulties, particularly in those cities

where call centres are well established. It is also well understood thatcall centres are relatively difficult places to work, particularly those per-

forming low-end sales/reservations functions. Not only is much of the

work highly routine, there are also limited career paths. Staff turnover

(so-called 'churn rates') tends to be high, particularly in those cases where

call centres have been staffed with people recruited from elsewhere in

the ~rganization.~oreover, as demand for experienced call centre

workers has increased, people have been able to transfer from one call

centre to another with relative ease. Even prior to the CCAI launch, an

international benchmarking survey identified New Zealand as havingspecific problems keeping front line customer service representatives for

more then 12 months (TARP, 1997).

In this context CCAI participants have tried to identify new sources

of call centre workers and invent new strategies for recruitment and

placement. Of course, one key reason for 'growing' the potential labour

pool is to keep wages low.7 More importantly, it is recognized that the

success of the CCAI will depend on providing international investors

with a ready supply of willing workers with the appropriate skills and

'right attitude' willing to fill the lower level positions associated with the'knowledge based economy'. In this regard, it becomes apparent that

the 'problem' of the call centre labour force is being framed in a specific

way. The problem is not low wages, unfulfilling jobs or poor work place

conditions. Rather the problem is that of creating a labour force willing

to accept jobs with these characteristics. In turn, this has encouraged

those involved with the CCAI to consider social groups historically mar-

ginalized from core labour force participation in New Zealand. Thus,

rather than taking for granted the 'fact' that globalization involves the

exploitation of low wage workers, close attention to the actors involved

in the CCAI, their strategies, and the consequences provides valuable

insights into the way globalised labour forces come to be imagined and

created in particular forms.

'POST-WELFARIST' EXPERTISE

In both academic and popular discussions it is often assumed that state

agencies (notably government departments and public educational insti-

tutions), employers and, to a lesser extent, trade unions, are responsible

for the constitution of the labour force. In this case, however, efforts

to solve the problem of labour shortages have involved more diverse

forms of social expertise coalescing around labour force issues. These

experts include state agencies, private sector organizations and industry


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relatively low levels of formal education might gain access. They run

regional call centre courses aimed at target groups such as Maori, single

mothers and long-term unemployed. As a publicity brochures states; 'The

hours can be flexible and suit either sole parents, avoiding potential child-care difficulties, or those for whom part-time work or multiple casual

jobs is the best option' (WINZ, 2000: 14).9However, in the design and

delivery of these courses WINZ is now working in close association with

local government via the regionally based Economic Development

Agencies. For example, the Far North District Council, which serves a

relatively poor and predominantly rural region with no major urban cen-

tres, signalled its intention to develop a call centre strategy (Nezo Zenlnnd

Herald, 8 June 1999). The Council announced that a major out-sourcing

company would locate a call centre/data processing centre in this area,and that WINZ would support the initiative by providing training

courses. While there has been little progress to date, this example indi-

cates how regional development ambitions may come to involve national

agencies, local authorities and private sector interests.

Whereas WINZ is focused on mobilizing those who are not currently

in paid work as potential call centre employees, the Immigration Depart-

ment is facilitating international recruitment. Following a precedent set

in the IT industry, they have agreed to give special exemption to call

centre managers in the context of perceived labour shortages. It is arguedthat the skills shortage are particularly acute at the level of team leaders

and call centre managers with 3-5 years experience, whereas New

Zealanders can be trained up for more basic jobs. More generally,

migrants are seen as a key target group for call centre recruitment. Once

competency in foreign languages was identified as a key issue for inter-

national call centre activities, greater efforts were made to highlight New

Zealand's ethnic diversity. For example, regional development authori-

ties were asked to collate and make available language data in order to

demonstrate the existence of a multi-lingual labour force to prospec-

tive investors. More generally, industry commentators began to argue

that New Zealand should market its 'multicultural flavour' as part of

the CCAI (Infotech Weekly, 14 June 1999), and Trade NZ (1999) now

explicitly identifies New Zealand's multi-cultural population and diverse

language skills in promotion material.

The role of national and regional governments in constructing a labour

force is well established. More recently attention has been paid to the

role of 'labour market intermediaries' such as private employment and

temporary help agencies. In her recent book Vosko (2000) identifies not

only the significance of these agencies as labour market entities per se,

but also discusses how they actively shape the employment relation-

ship. She describes how, since the 1970s, temporary help agencies

have expanded into new sectors and extended their responsibilities well

661


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There are some other, more general, points that can be made about

these experts. First, unlike the experts associated with the welfare state,

very few of them are members of the traditional professions. Rather,

their disciplinary backgrounds (if they have one) are likely to be thenew growth areas such as marketing, public relations and human

resources. It is also interesting to note that they are also disproportion-

ately women. Finally, rather than acting directly as state functionaries,

they are involved in disseminating techniques of self-management or

providing information - for example, risk assessments - that enable self

actualizing organizations and individuals to govern themselves and

assess their own performance (Rose 1999: 147). In this regard, they exem-

plify the process of 'governing at a distance' that characterizes advanced

liberalism more generally.

T H E S T R A T E G Y

In the previous section the array of institutions and organizations that

have come together around the 'problem' of labour shortages was des-

cribed. Herein I illustrate how the post-welfarist experts are inventing

novel ways in enrol subjects in their ambitions. In his work on unem-

ployment, Dean (1995,1998) draws attention to the relatively minor prac-

tices, such as pedagogical techniques, training schemes and skills packsthat act on the conduct of the potential worker by obliging them to

improve their employability by gaining particular skills. This kind of

analysis draws our attention away from a focus on discourse, and encour-

ages us to think about the devices invented to give effect to new forms

of rule, and the ways in which they impact on those who are the sub-

jects of these practices of governance. In this particular case, they allow

greater understanding of why it can be argued the 'post-welfarist' experts

are not simply recruiting an already existing labour force, they are

actually inventing and producing it in very specific forms.

The specific example discussed is the establishment of a toll free num-

ber designed to create a database of potential call centre workers. I am

not claiming this is the only, or even a typical, case. There are a wide

range of other initiatives underway including road shows, careers days,

conferences and media discussions. Buchanan (2000) for example,

describes a 'job fair' in her work on New Brunswick call centres. Nor is

the use of a toll free number for screening potential call centre workers

somehow abnormal. Indeed it is important to stress that these techniques

are widely used in private sector recruitment procedures, reflecting an

increasing emphasis on the psychological, dispositional and aspirational

capacities of workers. Rather I am using the example of the toll free num-

ber as a lens through which to illustrate the intellectual and practical

labour involved in constructing a labour force, emphasizing the inventive


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international call centres to the city. However, the city is already reput-

edly experiencing a shortage of call centre workers - hence the support

for the initiative. Leaflets were distributed to approximately 50 high

schools in the Wellington region and the four polytechnics. Distributionin Wellington was supplemented by additional leafleting in Auckland,

often accompanied by presentations from an Adecco representative.

Not only were conventional sites such as polytechnics, call centre train-

ing courses and computer training institutes targeted, so too were the

Kindergarten Association, the Chinese Friendship Society, the Citizens

Advice Bureau and the Auckland Community Learning Centre. In total,

4,000 copies of the leaflet were distributed in the effort to attract 'a new

generation' of call centre workers.

The toll free number not only gave additional information to thoseinterested in the 'call centre experience', it also offered them the oppor-

tunity to undergo voice assessment to examine their suitability, or other-

wise, for call centre employment. The call follows a tightly scripted

procedure. The first part provides more information about call centres,

describing them as a customer service environment, involving team work,

dealing with a variety of customers. At the same time, the caller is being

informally assessed on the basis of their pronunciation, clarity of speech,

command of English and use of colloquialisms. Should the caller be

deemed suitable for further consideration, at the end of the preliminarydiscussion they are asked if they remain interested in call centre employ-

ment. If so, after providing demographic, employment and skills data,

they proceed to a voice test.

The voice test is based on seven categories of 'competencies'. While

in human resources practice, competency is variously defined as know-

ledge, skill, ability, behaviour (Du Gay et al., 1996: 13), this case focuses

on behaviours rather than previous experience or qualifications. Because

most call centres have their own product/service based training pro-

grammes, it is understood that the potential of the person depends on

personal qualities. Thus, while the preference is for people with customer

service experience, a good phone manner and an ability to handle diffi-

cult customers are understood as equally valuable. The competency

framework therefore combines 'emotional labour' (Hoshchild, 1983)

with the standardization and codification of conduct. 'Competencies'

such as a positive attitude, good listening and questioning skills and the

ability to 'smile down the phone' are understood to be measurable and

quantifiable.

The competencies are gauged through a role-playing exercise. As the

candidate moves through the role-play (which involves dealing with a

hypothetical inbound query and/or complaint) each 'competency' is allo-

cated a numerical rating by a trained observer. The measures are entered

into a software package that pools the data to create seven 'mannerism


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ratings' that provide the basis for assessment of the person's perfor-

mance. Mannerism ratings include categories such as 'attitude', 'respond-

ing and rapport building' and 'listening and questioning'. The candidate

is also given a final evaluation score in the form of a percentage grade.Feedback is then provided to the candidate in the form of a letter and

a formal report that lists their mannerism ratings, the total evaluation

score, and gives additional feedback in the form of written comments.

Those who 'pass' the voice assessment are entered into a national call

centre candidate database, and then referred to an employment consul-

tant elsewhere in the firm to discuss their job options. Those who 'fail'

are encouraged to undertake additional training. The evaluation report

is used to identify their specific training needs and a recommendation

for a relevant training provider is included with the letter to the 'failed'candidate. The intention is that the potential call centre employee can

develop particular competencies through additional training, then re-

sit the voice assessment in with a better chance of 'passing'. In this

context, the relevance of du Gay's (1996) observation that competencies

are key to new entrepreneurial subjectivities becomes apparent. Potential

call centre workers are being encouraged to work on themselves in order

to realize their own potential.

The toll free number was initially understood as an experimental

strategy designed to generate additional interest in call centres. However,it has been more successful than was initially anticipated. An additional

staff person was employed to deal with the incoming calls, and the stated

aspiration is to build and maintain the largest national call centre candi-

date database in the country. At least one private training provider has

developed modules that directly link to the categories used in the soft-

ware package. The voice assessment package is also being used more

widely to screen candidates as they complete courses run by WINZ and

private sector providers. Finally, the very existence of the database is

also being used as evidence of a large pool of potential call centre workers

in New Zealand.

It is around relatively minor experiments, such as the toll free num-

ber, that the post-welfarist experts are establishing new relationships

with each other, inventing new ways of intervening in the labour force

and, indeed, reconfiguring the composition of the labour force itself. As

Walters (1999: 315) explains, these experts are 'not simply uncovering

the workings of an economy-in-general that is already there. Rather, they

are involved in a creative activity. They are bringing new dimensions of

the economic into existence, discovering new mechanisms by which its

performance can be optimized and re-engineered'. This is not an inno-

cent process. The toll free number is a banal mechanism that operates

in a context where it is already assumed that new call centre workers

are likely to be found in particular social groups. It also builds in the


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taken-for-grantedness of emotional labour and customer care. In this con-

text, the question of who might be an appropriate call centre worker is

certainly foreshadowed, and perhaps already answered.

CONCLUSION

By way of a conclusion, it is useful to link the case study back to broader

discussions of globalization and governance. Many commentators analyse

globalizing processes in terms of pre-given dynamics of capitalism and/

or patriarchy, then focus on how state actors mediate the gendered

effects of globalization by either resisting or promoting global econ-

omic processes, while at the same time often reinforcing gendered ide-

ologies about women's roles as wives and mothers (Ward, 1990: 18). In

contrast, this paper focuses on how changes in global economic activityare mediated by the prevailing rationality of government (Hindess, 1998:

211). Thus, rather than taking for granted the 'fact' that globalization is

often premised on the exploitation of vulnerable feminised labour forces,

attention is paid to how it is these labour forces are actively imagined

and created in particular forms. The intent is to show that governmental

objects and subjects do not pre-exist governmental processes.

Moreover, these governmental processes involve multiple actors. The

case study analysis identifies a range of 'post-welfarist' experts involved

in the constitution of a globalized labour force, many of whom are notstate actors. It is not being argued that the particular assemblage iden-

tified is somehow 'typical'. Inevitably, post-welfarist expertise will have

varying shapes, scales, geographies and sociologies, and close attention

is required to analyse the diversity of new governmental forms. Rather,

the discussion highlights the interplay between different agencies, and

explores the lines of convergence and deviation through which a partic-

ular governmental configuration emerged. In this case, the issue was

how to create a ready supply of low wage workers to fulfil the require-

ments of foreign investors locating their Asia-Pacific call centres in New

Zealand. It was shown that new strategies for recruitment and attach-

ment are being used, particularly by those involved in hiring and

training, and how this has entailed efforts to incorporate new groups of

workers, many of whom have been historically marginalized from the

core labour force.

More generally, it is not helpful to analyse this initiative in terms of

traditional social science dichotomies such as state and society, or even

public sector and private sector. Indeed, the governmentality literature

would lead us to understand these very divisions as artefacts of gov-

ernmental processes (see Dean, 1999; Rose, 1999). In this case, state agen-

cies are becoming more market oriented, and private sector agencies are

moving into terrain once understood as that of the state. Nor is it being


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For high profile international examples, see Jarman et al. (1998) on New

Brunswick; Breathnach (2000) on Ireland; Richardson and Marshall (1999)on the UK. Closer to home, Tasmania is perceived to be a 'successful' caseof a regional development strategy based on call centres.

It is difficult to know how exactly many people already work in New Zealandcall centres. Because government statistics are collated at an industry level,and call centres are found within a diverse range of industries offering

services such as sales, reservations, information provision, technical supportand banking there are no official figures available. Existing industry studies- for example ACA (2001) and Sheffields (2000)- tend to be based on rela-tively small samples. While the lack of rigorous data is widely recognized

as a difficulty, the resources to conduct a large scale survey are not currentlyavailable.For more detail of the initiative itself see Larner (2001).

This practice, most common in industries such as telecommunications compa-

nies, banks and utilities where the setting up of call centres has involvedsignificant organizational restructuring, has seen estimated turnover rates ofup to 40 percent (Infoteclz Weekly, 12 Oct 1998).Overall, average agent turnoverrate in New Zealand is 21 percent, with the majority of those leaving callcentre employment rather than moving to another call centre (ACA, 2001:

85).While the average FTE wage in New Zealand is around $34,840 per annum,

a call centre remuneration survey shows that an experienced full time cus-tomer service agent earns an average of $28,000 per annum, with the possi-bility of extending this to $33,000 if bonuses and incentives are included

(Sheffields, 2000). It should also be noted that participants in this survey

represent the 'high end' of the New Zealand call centre industry.Thanks to Roger Dale for helping me frame this claim.

It is interesting to note that while the graduates of these courses have formeda readily available source of new workers for WINZ's own call centres,private sector agencies are less enthusiastic about them, claiming it is often

hard to find placements for them.While call centres have been identified as fertile ground for the recruitment

of new union members, particularly around issues of health and safety, untilrecently union organizers in New Zealand have only had limited workplace

access. An additional challenge is that many call centre workers are youngpeople with limited previous involvement with unions, and the highly indi-

vidualistic labour practices of call centres often mitigate against collectiveorganization. However, FinSec, which has begun to position itself as thecall centre union, has been internationally recognized for their attemptsto contact 'on-line workers' through 'on-line' mechanisms. See: <http: /www.

union-network.org>.

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