Language Management/Labor

Type of Work

Article

Date

10-2013

Journal Title

Annual Review of Anthropology

Journal ISSN

0084-6570

Journal Volume

42

First Page

175

Last Page

190

DOI

10.1146/annurev-anthro-092412-155524

Abstract

How language is conceptualized as labor is a function of the economy within which profits are made and businesses are structured. Under capitalist regimes, language practices have been conceptualized as apart from labor, as part of the means of production, and as the product. Under neoliberal regimes and conditions of globalization, and depending on the language worker's job description and status as managed or managing, ethnicity/race, gender, and affiliation with national or nonnational language practices are conceptualized as skills subject to Taylorization, as natural abilities for employers' occasional use, or as indexes of authenticity. What ties all this together is how language workers are imagined in relation to the organizations for which they work, a key element being the degree to which language labor represents an internalization of the organization. In this way, language labor is conceptualized in relation to agency as a technology of self.

Hamilton Areas of Study

Anthropology

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