Mitra examines the experience of call center workers in developing countries who engage in virtual diaspora by adopting Western cultural norms like names and accents during work hours but return to their local culture afterwards. This creates difficulties as workers must constantly navigate between two distinct cultural worlds without fully belonging to either. The paper argues this dual cultural experience creates psychological stresses as workers struggle to fit into the imposed Western workplace culture while maintaining their own.

1. A look at Ananda Mitra’s
“Working in cybernetic space: Diasporic Indian call
centers workers in the outsourced World”

2. Introduction
 Mitra (2008) examines the existence of
diaspora among call center employees
from third-world countries.
 Her summary of past research and
information regarding this subject takes
a critical view as she is suggesting that
call center employees experience
cultural as a contested zone, where their
work lives and real lives are in
opposition.

3. New Disporia
 The outsourcing of call centers has
created a new type of diaspora for
employees
 Employees are not being transported to
a new physical location (as with tradition
diaspora), but rather being virtually
placed into a different culture

4. Worlds Colliding
 Those working in call centers located in
third-world countries are experiencing
their worlds colliding.
 While they may be living their normal
lives during the day, in the
evening, when at work, they are
transported to another place, where
Western culture is observed

5. Difficult Transitions
 Due to this dual cultural condition, call
center employees may have difficulty
adjusting.
 When moving geographically to a new
location, it is easier to take on the
culture of your new home.
 However, these employees are only
embracing this new culture during work
hours—not as part of their overall life.

6. Western Nights
 Part of the transition is needing to
accommodate to Western culture.
 Call center workers all work the
“graveyard shift” as to accommodate
Western lifestyle.
 Additionally, workers will take on
Western names and accents to make
customers feel comfortable and as if
they are not talking to a foreigner.

7. Western Nights
 Call center offices also try to reproduce
a Western culture, offering gyms,
cafeterias, and other amenities that are
a-typical for the third-world work
environment.
 But when employees leave in the
morning, they return to their real culture.

8. The Issue
 Call center employees are being forced
to live in two worlds.
 They must acknowledge and embrace
Western culture at work, usually without
ever experiencing first hand.
 Upon leaving work, the employees are
once again immersed in their own
culture.
 This causes employees to live a dual
life.

9. The Issue
 This dual life and their diasporic
condition is harder to navigate for call
center employees.
 Employees are constantly struggling to
“fit in” to the Western culture as well as
dealing with psychological issues of
balancing their two lives.

10. Conclusion
 Mitra (2008) suggests that more
research should be dedicated to this
topic, discovering new ways that call
center employees, as well as others that
may be transported to different cultures
via technology, balance the two lives
that they are forced to lead.

11. Quote No. 1
 “Indeed, while outsourcing typically
deals with the way in which tasks move
from one place to another, diaspora
deals with the idea of people moving
from one place to another. The common
factor between the ideas of diaspora
and outsourcing is the idea of place”
(Mitra, 2008, p. 206)

12. Quote No. 1
 With this statement, Mitra (2008) is
presenting the key problem: Virtual
diaspora is caused not by a person
relocating physically, but doing so
virtually.
 The new culture must be explored
despite the fact the employee is not
living in that culture.

13. Quote No. 2
 “Assuming that a core component of the
diasporic condition is the crisis related to
culture where the individual has to be
able to adopt a new culture either by
completely relinquishing another or by
striking a balance between two, it is
surely possible that such situations can
arise in the new spaces we dwell in”
(Mitra, 2008, p. 216)

14. Quote No. 2
 Mitra (2008) is setting forth the belief
that diaspora is not just happening to
those that are physically transported, but
those who are virtually transported to a
new culture as well.

15. Discussion Questions
 Call center employees in third-world
countries are forced to learn the culture of
the Western world. What issues could this
cause in their every day lives? What
barriers may be incurred when having to be
knowledgeable about a culture you never
have the chance to truly experience?
 I examined Mitra (2008) from the critical
perspective. What other approach could be
adapted to her research?

16. Source
 Mitra, Ananda. (2008). Working in
cybernetic space. In R. Gajjala & V.
Gajjala (Eds.), South-Asian
technospaces (pp. 205-224). New York:
Peter Lang.