全球"猎身"：世界信息产业和印度的技术劳工

by Xiang Biao, 项飙, 王迪 (Translator)

为什么印度的整体社会发展缓慢，而软件出口却独领风骚？为什么美国的IT公司不断裁人，同时又大肆引进国外雇员？基於作者在印度、澳大利亚和马来西亚长达两年的人类学实地调查，《生产虚拟》指出，这些看似矛盾、远隔万里的现象其实是紧密联系在一起的，其关键是IT产业里的"猎身"体系。猎身是一个以印度为中心的全球化劳动力配置和管理体系。"劳力行"--猎身的主要行为者--把印度工人招到西方，然后按用人公司的临时需要把工人短期转手给它们；当一个项目完成之后，工人回到劳动行"坐板凳"等待下一个机会。世界各地的劳力行互通有无，从而形成了一个全球范围的高度灵活的劳动力配置系统。本书的主题是印度的信息技术产业中的劳动力体系，特别是一个全球化的、号称"猎身" 的劳动力调配系统。

Genres: Anthropology, Ethnography, School, Nonfiction

311 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 6, 2006

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. The book is not just a detailed description of the micro to the macro to the global of the development of an Indian labor force of technology workers. The book is also the story of the anthropologist, Xiang Biao, an Oxford anthropology student, who lives with the Indians as they make their way through the network of tech schools in the the south of India, to the recruiting outfits in Australia. The goal is to get a job on a project in the United States. An interesting outcome of this system is that the recruiting of bodies for projects becomes more lucrative than the technical expertise required for the projects. The book is short and well written.

[Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting empirical and ethnographic analysis of "body-shopping" practices in regards to the increasingly globalized, transnational Indian IT economy. The connections between fostered social relations and the abstraction/financialization of capital, alongside an analysis of the international division of labor, were quite illuminating. However, the normative critiques -- and especially the forms of systemic exploitation and coercion -- accompanying this system were lacking (essentially reserved for a 5 page epilogue). Further explication regarding the gender, racial, and class inequalities embedded in the IT industry would behoove the work the Xiang is trying to achieve.

[thinkingape · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best. Solid work. Shocked by the close tie between NRI(non-resident Indian) and the dowry they command.

[Layla Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

While preparing my master's thesis, I interviewed a number of Pakistani and Sudanese engineers and environmental consultants working in Saudi Arabia to get a sense of the environmental sector across the Middle East, and listened to them describe the hardships they had faced along the way.

Although I'm not planning to write on migrant labor, I still felt I should read Professor Xiang Biao's book, to see how a Chinese researcher carried out a labor study of Indian IT workers, following them from Bangalore to Sydney.

It was a staggering read. I had seen plenty of social media posts about Indians in the US and the UK and knew they were a huge migrant community, but I had never thought about the labor-dispatch system behind it all, which has been running since the 1990s. Much like the outsourcing arrangements at China's big tech companies today, labor agencies in India and Australia funnel vast numbers of surplus Indian IT workers to IT firms, while the firms keep picking whichever short-term workers are most convenient, and demand never seems to run dry. But now that AI is taking over so much programming work, I'm curious where the global body-shopping system will ultimately end up.

I also picked up a few fieldwork techniques, such as writing a short biographical sketch for each interviewee, and the fact that, as a man, you really can eat and live alongside your interviewees...

[Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

《全球“猎身”》（中）项飚。

[繁邦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting ethnography about Indian IT workers overseas.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read it for my anthro class. While an interesting topic I did not know about, the book was kinda bland.

[Yida · Rating 4 out of 5]

the proface is even better than the body itself

[Justin Xing · Rating 4 out of 5]

非传统民族志写法的人类学论文。民族/个人/全球的相互交错下，印度的种姓阶级性别不平等，使得社会剩余价值集中到一小部分精英阶级，因此造就了“印度IT”。

种姓阶级性别问题没有展开讲，也并不是这本书的重点。对于本身不太了解印度风物志的读者来说，是一本不错的”由点及面”的书。

[Abby W · Rating 4 out of 5]

读了好久，序言和结语部分写得坦诚有温度。最感兴趣的部分是：在与劳力行不合理的合同中，IT工人为什么会顺从？一方面是信息差，另一方面也是受限于贫瘠的关系网络与印度教影响下的“以和为贵”。即使知道不合理，对他们来说也无从选择，只好认命，这种“逆来顺受”让我想到了我们一部分的中国人。