Colloquium
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
12:30 pm
279 Haines Hall
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Teacher, sailor, call center operator:
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Today, nearly 1 in 3 merchant seafarers in the world is Filipino, yet Filipinos remain primarily in subordinate positions, hailed as particularly “good followers.” This talk will address the racialized formation of a Filipino labor niche in global shipping and how its development, consequences and meanings for workers themselves can help illuminate the rise of new Filipino niches in global industries as diverse as Business Process Outsourcing and secondary education. The talk will trace the historical rise of the seafarer niche and the contemporary struggle of Filipino sailors to assert themselves despite their labor market insecurity, lowly positions, and intervention by the Philippine State. It will then address the emergence of new niches and the prospects for Filipino workers both in and beyond the Philippines.
About the Speaker
Steve McKay is Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Cruz. He received his PhD in Sociology and an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and his BA from UC Berkeley. His research and teaching interests include Filipino labor and diaspora, work and labor markets, globalization, racial formation, and masculinity. He is the author of the book, Satanic Mills or Silicon Islands? The Politics of High-Tech Production in the Philippines, ILR/Cornell University Press (2006) and numerous journal articles including, “Filipino Sea Men: Constructing Masculinities in an Ethnic Labor Niche,” in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (May 2007), and “The Squeaky Wheel's Dilemma: New Forms of Labor Organizing in the Philippines,” in the Labor Studies Journal (2005).
This event is co-sponsored with Departments of Sociology, Asian American Studies and the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty.
