Colloquium in Apr. 2022
Kim, Kwanwook (Professor, Dept. of Cultural Anthropology at Duksung Women’s Univ., South Korea)
The primary goal of this study is to address changes in the working environment of call center during the COVID–19 crisis. Furthermore, it intends to discuss that the health of counselors in this outbreak is not secured by ‘compliance’ with the workplace’s manual and quarantine regulation but on the contrary, ‘resistance.’ The researcher analyzed through the recent concepts of ‘Health–Assemblage’ and ‘Affect’ based on Gilles Deleuze’s philosophical concept.
In this study, in-depth interviews were conducted with counselors ‘outside’ the call center since direct fieldwork was impracticable due to the reinforcement of quarantine regulations. Through in-depth interviews with executives of various call center unions, whom the researcher had met during the call center organization workshop in July 2020.
The in-depth interview contents were largely divided into four situations: First, cases of the counselors who suffered from the infection with COVID-19; second, cases of the overwork of counselors related to a surge in inbound calls; third, cases of forced distribution of the counselors; and finally, the suppression of the labor union’s activity in the public institution call center. In each case, they were exposed to poor situations represented by ‘fruit basket’ affect, ‘sweet rice drink’ affect, ‘red tick’ affect, and ‘wall’ affect. Through these situations, the counselors formed a poor health–assemblage that diminishes the power to acting, that is, the affect as sadness.
♣ Please let us apologize for not uploading the photos for this virtual colloquium.
