Talking class, talking race: language, class, and race in the call center industry in South Africa
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.
Keywords: Afrique du Sud; South Africa; Sudáfrica; call centers; centres d'appels; clase; class; classe; geografía del trabajo; géographie du travail; idioma; interseccionalidad; intersectionality; intersectionnalité; labor geography; language; langue
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Department of Geography,University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military TrailToronto,Ontario, CanadaM1C 1A4, 2: Department of Humanities,University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military TrailToronto,Ontario, CanadaM1C 1A4,
Publication date: 01 September 2012
- Editorial Board
- Information for Authors
- Subscribe to this Title
- Ingenta Connect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content