Technomediation has been a key shaper of identity for bodies in the physical and virtual global space. Using a series of case studies ranging from IT outsourcing to health-care tourism, South Asian Digital Diasporas explores who we become when we enter these technomediated environments with particular bodies, socio-cultural literacies and technical skills.
By looking at the specific placement of South Asian bodies within these spaces as an adaptable, mobile workforce the book examines the mediation of race, affect and labour in a global socio-economic environment. Noting the subalternization of South Asian digital diasporas it highlights the complexities and nuances in the racing of the South Asian body and illuminates the innately unequal power structure of the virtual workspace.
By looking at the specific placement of South Asian bodies within these spaces as an adaptable, mobile workforce the book examines the mediation of race, affect and labour in a global socio-economic environment. Noting the subalternization of South Asian digital diasporas it highlights the complexities and nuances in the racing of the South Asian body and illuminates the innately unequal power structure of the virtual workspace.
Introduction: From Postcolonial to Modern to Neoliberal: Global and Digital South Asian Diasporas/ 1 Studying bodies in virtuality and digital diasporas: issues of method, labor, time and affect / 2 The Computer Boom and Becoming Digital: Representations of the South Asian IT workers in the 1990s/ 3 Disappearing the Brown Bodies: Offshore and Virtual Work/4 Making Women Visible: Self-Help Groups and Microfinance in South Asia/ 5 Micro-Labour as Empowerment/ 6 Automating Subaltern Labour: Circuits of Care and Capital / Conclusion
Radhika Gajjala is Professor of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. Her previous books include Cyberculture and the Subaltern (Lexington, 2012) and Cyberselves: Feminist Ethnographies of South Asian Women (Altamira, 2004). She has co-edited collections including Cyberfeminism 2.0 (Peter Lang 2012), Global Media Culture and Identity (Routledge 2011), South Asian Technospaces (Peter Lang 2008) and Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice (Hampton Press2008).
She is also a member of the Fembot Collective and FemTechnet and is co-editor of ADA: Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology.
She is also a member of the Fembot Collective and FemTechnet and is co-editor of ADA: Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology.