UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS: INDIA, AUSTRALIA AND THE CHANGING DIVISION OF LABOUR IN ‘OFFSHORE’ ARCHITECTURAL PRODUCTION AND EDUCATION

Bharat, D; Gardiner, B; Scriver, P; Tombesi, P

UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS: INDIA, AUSTRALIA AND THE CHANGING DIVISION OF LABOUR IN ‘OFFSHORE’ ARCHITECTURAL PRODUCTION AND EDUCATION

Bharat, D Gardiner, B Scriver, P Tombesi, P

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Publication Type:: Article
Issue Date:: 2007-10-05T02:08:53Z

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Bharat, D
dc.contributor.author	Gardiner, B
dc.contributor.author	Scriver, P
dc.contributor.author	Tombesi, P
dc.date.accessioned	2007-10-05T02:08:53Z
dc.date.accessioned	2012-12-15T02:35:05Z
dc.date.available	2007-10-05T02:08:53Z
dc.date.available	2012-12-15T02:35:05Z
dc.date.issued	2007-10-05T02:08:53Z
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/19675
dc.description.abstract	As with many other ‘industries’ routinely engaged in the digital production and exchange of information, global interconnectivity is driving a worldwide relocation of architectural design production and documentation facilities from higher-wage to lower-wage regions. With common professional and linguistic legacies from the colonial past, India is emerging as a key provider to Australia in this emerging market of offshore architectural services. Conversely, India is also one of Australia’s most important emerging consumers of architectural education. Until recently, a ‘foreign-returned’ Indian architect with a degree from an overseas university could anticipate architectural employment in an ‘upstairs’ position of responsibility and prestige. Overseas qualifications typically entailed overseas work experience as well, and the enhanced professional judgement these implied to perform the higher order ‘symbolic analysis’ of a designer or project leader. It was the ‘downstairs’ staff of locally trained drafters and technicians who did the ‘routine production’ and were paid accordingly. With the rapidly increasing volume and sophistication of ‘offshore’ architectural work now being ‘outsourced’ to Indian firms, however, the old ‘upstairs-downstairs’ division of labour and expertise is no longer clear. This paper interprets relevant findings from the Indian case study of a larger comparative study of the changing geography of architectural work. Here we question what an Australian architectural degree is actually worth, or should be, to an Indian graduate architect when locally trained architectural technicians based in Delhi, Mumbai, and even provincial Kanpur are routinely working on major projects around the Globe as remote digital collaborators with some of the largest architectural firms in the world.	en
dc.format.extent	170140 bytes
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.relation.replaces	http://hdl.handle.net/2100/493
dc.subject	digital outsourcing	en
dc.subject	offshore architectural services	en
dc.subject	India	en
dc.subject	overseas education	en
dc.title	UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS: INDIA, AUSTRALIA AND THE CHANGING DIVISION OF LABOUR IN ‘OFFSHORE’ ARCHITECTURAL PRODUCTION AND EDUCATION	en
dc.type	Article	en
utslib.copyright.status	open_access

Abstract:

As with many other ‘industries’ routinely engaged in the digital production and exchange of information, global interconnectivity is driving a worldwide relocation of architectural design production and documentation facilities from higher-wage to lower-wage regions. With common professional and linguistic legacies from the colonial past, India is emerging as a key provider to Australia in this emerging market of offshore architectural services. Conversely, India is also one of Australia’s most important emerging consumers of architectural education. Until recently, a ‘foreign-returned’ Indian architect with a degree from an overseas university could anticipate architectural employment in an ‘upstairs’ position of responsibility and prestige. Overseas qualifications typically entailed overseas work experience as well, and the enhanced professional judgement these implied to perform the higher order ‘symbolic analysis’ of a designer or project leader. It was the ‘downstairs’ staff of locally trained drafters and technicians who did the ‘routine production’ and were paid accordingly. With the rapidly increasing volume and sophistication of ‘offshore’ architectural work now being ‘outsourced’ to Indian firms, however, the old ‘upstairs-downstairs’ division of labour and expertise is no longer clear. This paper interprets relevant findings from the Indian case study of a larger comparative study of the changing geography of architectural work. Here we question what an Australian architectural degree is actually worth, or should be, to an Indian graduate architect when locally trained architectural technicians based in Delhi, Mumbai, and even provincial Kanpur are routinely working on major projects around the Globe as remote digital collaborators with some of the largest architectural firms in the world.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/19675