Most Americans today are aware that jobs are being outsourced to China, India, and othernations at an alarming rate. From factory jobs to white-collar, high-tech positions, the exporting of labor is one of the most controversial issues in America. Yet few people know much about the other end – about the people who are actually working these jobs and how their own lives have been thrown into tumult by these new economic forces.

Andrew Ross, professor of American Studies and chair of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, spent a year in China, interviewing local employees and their managers in Taiwan, Shanghai, and the far western provinces. His talk draws from his engaging and informative book, Fast Boat to China, in which he shows how the Chinese workforce has inherited many of the same worries as American workers, such as job instability, long hours, and awareness of their own expendability. He also reports on the daily reality of corporate free trade and explores the growing competition between China and India.

The discussion will be moderated by Rachel Heiman, assistant professor of anthropology in the Bachelor’s Program and Department of Social Sciences at the New School for General Studies. This event is cosponsored by the Department of Social Sciences, India China Institute, and the Graduate Program in International Affairs.