Global connections: language policies and international call centers

Abstract

When calling (and waiting) for help in some countries, many of us have learned to expect the standard, audio-recorded reminder that ‘Your call may be monitored for quality assurance...’. Most of us think little about this delay and if we consider it at all, frame it in terms of how our needs as customers are (or are not) being met at that moment. This thematic issue of Language Policy critically explores what is on the other side of that phrase, that is, what is meant by ‘‘quality’’ in call center translations, how this quality is linked to broader global forces and ideologies, as well as how it is regulated through language policy and negotiated via everyday interactions. In most (but not all, see Duchene, this issue) cases, call centers involve connecting service-seeking customers from wealthy, English-speaking countries with service-providing workers from more multilingual, less economically powerful states or regions. Managing these cultural, social, and linguistic connections is the central task of the call center employee. The primary good to be produced by the worker is a quality interaction from the perspective of the customer. In many cases, call center services are to be provided without the caller knowing that the call center is in another country; therefore, quality often means that call center workers should sound like the caller. While talking is an important aspect of many jobs in the service sector, in few places is language more central, managed or regulated than in international call centers. Call centers, for this reason, represent an ideal site for critical examination of how language policy is formulated, negotiated and resisted. Advances in communication and computing technology over the last decade have made international call centers ubiquitous in a wide range of businesses and sites around the globe. Call centers are a highly salient result of globalization, and concomitantly, a rich site for the study of what globalization entails at the individual, interpersonal and interactional level. The articles in this special issue of