Knowledge and Media Workers in the Global Economy: Antimonies of Outsourcing

The outsourcing of jobs, particularly the growing practice of sending the jobs of US knowledge and communication sector workers to other countries, has become a significant issue in academic, policy and media circles. This paper draws from a research project that examines labour, its unions and social movements in the knowledge and media sectors to describe what the authors know about outsourcing and assess its significance for media scholars. The paper begins by defining the knowledge worker category and by assessing debates about its significance which date from the 1950s.It next considers major views about the problems which centre on the fear of massive job loss to low-wage nations, especially India and China, and addresses solutions offered by organized labour which call for stopping outsourcing wherever possible, and by business which maintains that outsourcing can only be curtailed when business and labour grow smarter.