Abstract (eng)
1. Motivation: I want to investigate the topic of call centers because, in the long run, the area call centers are active belongs to the areas of growth of the service society, which will continue to grow. The goal of my research is to point out the structural changes in the working environment, stemming from globalization and the rising exploitation, like flexibilization, it creates. Rising flexibilization (e.g. nightshifts in call centers) in the working world triggers massive changes, which have impacts on job hours and salaries, and on the personal living conditions of each and every one as well.
2. Interest in the topic: The precarious employments in call centers are increasingly determined by employees which directed from outside. The term "outsourcing" plays a major role in there, i.e. many areas are given away (e.g. postal service, railroads). Outsourcing of companies which used to be owned by the state caused the state to retreat, following the motto “weniger Staat – mehr privat“(less state, more private), from its responsibility. My work deals with a survey of call centers and their various schemes of working hours. If the word “flexibility” and “freedom” of the employee shall remain secured, legal minimum standards and shaped working conditions towards the employer are mandated. What can advocacy groups of the employees actually do to uncover flaws and make things better? Which strategies can be chosen by the labor unions to solve these problems? Do the representatives of the employees have so much influence, in the age of neo-liberalism, to achieve the implementation of the social and legal working conditions, or will the development of these forms of work get even worse through globalization?
The working conditions of women, and their changes, are what I want to go into in particular, i.e. from the origins of the women´s movement to the voting rights for women, as well as from full-term employment to part-time employment and other forms of employment (part-time work, freelance work). My thesis aims to cover the industrial development since about 1850, and I will describe the political and social background, along with associated changes. I also mention women who play a minor role in the industrial age. It was only the 19th century when the image of women, and the situation of women, slowly started to change through the political successes of the women´s movement.
I want to show the changes in labor, which happen up into the 21st century, especially with regards to women. The industrial age brought social problems with it, like the over-supply of cheap labor and the resulting pressure on wages. Labor-law related issues were subject to the employer´s arbitration. Furthermore, I will briefly mention the living conditions of workers, and its implications, like working hours, housing conditions, along with women´s work and children´s work, which also lead to a decrease in life quality. Improvements of the working and living conditions of factory workers were enforced by intense fights of the organized working class against the strife for profit of the entrepeneurs.
Only at the end of the 19th century, first successes were achieved which meant improvements in social rights for women as well. New forms of employment, like freelance work and “jobs on demand”, lead to a steep rise in poverty and to more and more living on the edge of their existence, hitting women in particular. Atypical forms of employment have risen since 2001. The risk of poverty in Austria (about one million) is rising rapidly, hitting women (about 14%) harder than men (12%).
Due to missing social protections of the terms of service, the situation on the job is worsening continuously and often only “survival” matters. Additionally, the question has to be asked whether these forms of employment are wasted resources for people with higher education. Did these people silently say good-bye to their work?
3. Method: Qualitative research methods. My emphasis is within empirical research, in interviews and talks with people who work in call centers. I will talk personally to the head of the call center, and make the questionnaires. The point is the alienation of work. Can the employees of a call center identify themselves with the work? Which careers do they (mostly women) have so far? How to they feel the pressure to perform?
I want to poll about ten companies, choosing bigger and smaller call centers, and comparing these with each other. Is the identification of the employees depending on the size of a call center? Is there a difference with in-house and private call centers? With this method of research, I want to show the emotional, social and economic side to the conditions of employment. Focus of my work is the connection with the affiliation to the company and the difficulties to identify with the employer.
4. Research questions:
Theoretical approach: My work relates to labor policy, belonging to policy research. Isolation and alienation result from working conditions. This includes the kind of work, manpower and the exploitation of people causes by globalization. One can make a connection to Erich Fromm via Freud and Marx. What is the meaning of alienation from work for Hegel, the early Habermas, Fromm and Marx? Why was this important to philosophers already back then? Fromm starts from the close connection between the emergence of this kind of alienation with the development with an economic system which views people only as economic factors. Is there a relation to the present situation? What are the indicators of alienated work? I want to show the controversy among Luhmann and Scharpf, with Luhmann being skeptic about governance but Scharpf holding the view that political
governance is doable, viewing those acting as the main factors, not the system. Will labor market policies be taken back in the spirit of liberalization? Could politics govern the problems of the working world, in the sense of work not alienated, if the state had certain instruments? Is the state able to influence or govern areas of the labor market for certain political goals? What are the reasons for the problems of political governance? Why are these reforms very hard to enforce?
5. Closure:
I only want to present the structure in bullet (I will possibly add one point or the other):
1. Introductioni
2. The historical and political story of labor and industrialization in Austria since 1850
2.1. The term labor and its development
2.2. The meaning of alienation
2.3. Hegel´s theory of alienation. The critique of Marx on Hegel´s theory of the state
3.. The women´s movement at the end of the 19th century, and the first political successes in the working
world.
3.1. The development on the labor market since 1945, with special emphasis on women and the structural
changes.
4. The loss of the normal job relations, and the meaning of flexibility
4.1. The indicators for alienated work
5. Rising unemployment, and their psychic implications
6. Poverty and social exclusion in the welfare state, and the term "working poor"
7. The analysis of “valid” basic programs of the political parties and their positions on policies for the labor
market and the job market.
8. Social problems in “precarious" jobs, and the outsourcing of call centers
9. The new challenges for labor unions in the implementation of labor rights for atypical employees,
with special emphasis on call centers.
10. The history of basic income, and the statement of the political parties
11. The question of a potential influence of labor market policies and the potential to govern for the state
12. The dicussion about the controversy of the governability between Luhmann and Scharpf, and the differing
views of the problem of governance of the labor market and the labor politics.
13. How can the labor market and the governing policies qualitatively and and quantitatively be steered, with
emphasis on atypical employes?
14. The various forms of labor in the future of the working world
15. Own empirical inquiries in call centers
I want to exclude in my work customer satisfaction and customer dissatisfaction with call centers
1. Motivation: I want to investigate the topic of call centers because, in the long run, the area call centers are active belongs to the areas of growth of the service society, which will continue to grow. The goal of my research is to point out the structural changes in the working environment, stemming from globalization and the rising exploitation, like flexibilization, it creates. Rising flexibilization (e.g. nightshifts in call centers) in the working world triggers massive changes, which have impacts on job hours and salaries, and on the personal living conditions of each and every one as well.
2. Interest in the topic: The precarious employments in call centers are increasingly determined by employees which directed from outside. The term "outsourcing" plays a major role in there, i.e. many areas are given away (e.g. postal service, railroads). Outsourcing of companies which used to be owned by the state caused the state to retreat, following the motto “weniger Staat – mehr privat“(less state, more private), from its responsibility. My work deals with a survey of call centers and their various schemes of working hours. If the word “flexibility” and “freedom” of the employee shall remain secured, legal minimum standards and shaped working conditions towards the employer are mandated. What can advocacy groups of the employees actually do to uncover flaws and make things better? Which strategies can be chosen by the labor unions to solve these problems? Do the representatives of the employees have so much influence, in the age of neo-liberalism, to achieve the implementation of the social and legal working conditions, or will the development of these forms of work get even worse through globalization?
The working conditions of women, and their changes, are what I want to go into in particular, i.e. from the origins of the women´s movement to the voting rights for women, as well as from full-term employment to part-time employment and other forms of employment (part-time work, freelance work). My thesis aims to cover the industrial development since about 1850, and I will describe the political and social background, along with associated changes. I also mention women who play a minor role in the industrial age. It was only the 19th century when the image of women, and the situation of women, slowly started to change through the political successes of the women´s movement.
I want to show the changes in labor, which happen up into the 21st century, especially with regards to women. The industrial age brought social problems with it, like the over-supply of cheap labor and the resulting pressure on wages. Labor-law related issues were subject to the employer´s arbitration. Furthermore, I will briefly mention the living conditions of workers, and its implications, like working hours, housing conditions, along with women´s work and children´s work, which also lead to a decrease in life quality. Improvements of the working and living conditions of factory workers were enforced by intense fights of the organized working class against the strife for profit of the entrepeneurs.
Only at the end of the 19th century, first successes were achieved which meant improvements in social rights for women as well. New forms of employment, like freelance work and “jobs on demand”, lead to a steep rise in poverty and to more and more living on the edge of their existence, hitting women in particular. Atypical forms of employment have risen since 2001. The risk of poverty in Austria (about one million) is rising rapidly, hitting women (about 14%) harder than men (12%).
Due to missing social protections of the terms of service, the situation on the job is worsening continuously and often only “survival” matters. Additionally, the question has to be asked whether these forms of employment are wasted resources for people with higher education. Did these people silently say good-bye to their work?
3. Method: Qualitative research methods. My emphasis is within empirical research, in interviews and talks with people who work in call centers. I will talk personally to the head of the call center, and make the questionnaires. The point is the alienation of work. Can the employees of a call center identify themselves with the work? Which careers do they (mostly women) have so far? How to they feel the pressure to perform?
I want to poll about ten companies, choosing bigger and smaller call centers, and comparing these with each other. Is the identification of the employees depending on the size of a call center? Is there a difference with in-house and private call centers? With this method of research, I want to show the emotional, social and economic side to the conditions of employment. Focus of my work is the connection with the affiliation to the company and the difficulties to identify with the employer.
4. Research questions:
Theoretical approach: My work relates to labor policy, belonging to policy research. Isolation and alienation result from working conditions. This includes the kind of work, manpower and the exploitation of people causes by globalization. One can make a connection to Erich Fromm via Freud and Marx. What is the meaning of alienation from work for Hegel, the early Habermas, Fromm and Marx? Why was this important to philosophers already back then? Fromm starts from the close connection between the emergence of this kind of alienation with the development with an economic system which views people only as economic factors. Is there a relation to the present situation? What are the indicators of alienated work? I want to show the controversy among Luhmann and Scharpf, with Luhmann being skeptic about governance but Scharpf holding the view that political
governance is doable, viewing those acting as the main factors, not the system. Will labor market policies be taken back in the spirit of liberalization? Could politics govern the problems of the working world, in the sense of work not alienated, if the state had certain instruments? Is the state able to influence or govern areas of the labor market for certain political goals? What are the reasons for the problems of political governance? Why are these reforms very hard to enforce?
5. Closure:
I only want to present the structure in bullet (I will possibly add one point or the other):
1. Introductioni
2. The historical and political story of labor and industrialization in Austria since 1850
2.1. The term labor and its development
2.2. The meaning of alienation
2.3. Hegel´s theory of alienation. The critique of Marx on Hegel´s theory of the state
3.. The women´s movement at the end of the 19th century, and the first political successes in the working
world.
3.1. The development on the labor market since 1945, with special emphasis on women and the structural
changes.
4. The loss of the normal job relations, and the meaning of flexibility
4.1. The indicators for alienated work
5. Rising unemployment, and their psychic implications
6. Poverty and social exclusion in the welfare state, and the term "working poor"
7. The analysis of “valid” basic programs of the political parties and their positions on policies for the labor
market and the job market.
8. Social problems in “precarious" jobs, and the outsourcing of call centers
9. The new challenges for labor unions in the implementation of labor rights for atypical employees,
with special emphasis on call centers.
10. The history of basic income, and the statement of the political parties
11. The question of a potential influence of labor market policies and the potential to govern for the state
12. The dicussion about the controversy of the governability between Luhmann and Scharpf, and the differing
views of the problem of governance of the labor market and the labor politics.
13. How can the labor market and the governing policies qualitatively and and quantitatively be steered, with
emphasis on atypical employes?
14. The various forms of labor in the future of the working world
15. Own empirical inquiries in call centers
I want to exclude in my work customer satisfaction and customer dissatisfaction with call centers