Abstract

MOENCH, Eric. Governments, companies and work in the activity of call centers: a political history of labor reconfiguration in Argentina (1994-2017). Trab. soc. [online]. 2022, vol.23, n.38, pp.401-422.  Epub Jan 01, 2022. ISSN 1514-6871.

How did fifty thousand direct jobs in outsourced call centers in Argentina be reached in 2017? Moreover, why has it been possible for this activity to go through nearly two decades positioned as the main space generating youth employment, even in markedly different socio-economic and political-labour contexts? Who has driven this dynamic of call center activity? These questions will be addressed when analyzing the historical process of outsourced call centers in Argentina between 1994 and 2017. Our hypothesis is that it is the effects of an asymmetric interrelation between business sectors, political governments and labor collectives - as decision-makers, managers and regulators - that will make possible the labor relevance of this activity. Thus, throughout those years, different combinations of political, business and union alliances will end up transforming the labor world in Argentina. This perspective delineates a political history that explains a new labor order, where heterogeneous elements are complemented (economic measures and labor laws in a framework of globalization, different types of competitiveness strategies, and new forms of management and organization of work) to articulate a greater level of flexibility, control and intensification of the work.

Keywords : Call Centers; Employment; Political history; Actors -political, economic and labor-; Competitive work.

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