Neutral Accent: How Language, Labor, and Life Become Global, written by A. Aneesh

Learning from accented virtual humans: Can quality of voice and globalization overcome accent familiarity?

“…Some have theorized that the globalization of multimedia material "neutralizes" foreign identities and things associated with them such as accents (Aneesh, 2015). Pilus (2013) found that in contradiction to these globalization ideals, there is still a tendency for users to report a preference for their accent.…”

Hidden in Plain Sight: “Neutral” Enclosures for High‐Skilled Immigrants During COVID‐191

“…Our descriptor, “neutral”, is drawn from existing discussions on how neoliberal globalization uses various discourses of neutrality (and equal opportunities) to normalize inequality (Aneesh 2015; Radhakrishnan 2011). Discourses of neutrality camouflage the mechanisms of control and foster the ideologies about a horizontal world that is, apparently, free from exploitation and marginalization.…”

“…Discourses of neutrality camouflage the mechanisms of control and foster the ideologies about a horizontal world that is, apparently, free from exploitation and marginalization. For example, Aneesh's (2015) work on “neutral accents” of call center workers in India identifies neutrality as a set of discourses and techniques of governance. These workers in the Global South are required to erase their cultural identities, mimic the cultural norms of their clients in the Global North and learn to speak in a “neutral” accent.…”

Attitudes towards Indian English among young urban professionals in Hyderabad, India

“…In present‐day India, English has an instrumental function and is used as ‘an intranational link language’ by middle‐ and upper‐class Indians in public and private domains (Sedlatschek, 2009, p. 23). It is seen as a marker of culture, prestige and status (Aramavudan, 2007; Gargesh & Sailaja, 2017), a ‘language of possibility’, a ‘promise of modernity’ (Aneesh, 2015, p. 6), and as essential for competitiveness in employment (Hohenthal, 2003; Gargesh & Sailaja, 2017). While these descriptions would suggest that Indian English has increasing levels of cultural and symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1991), the issue of language attitudes towards English in postcolonial settings is complex, due in part to the historical context in which the varieties developed, including prolonged contact with the indigenous languages spoken in those regions.…”

“…For the majority of Indians, a neutral accent in the Indian context is not necessarily ‘regionless’ or nationless, as described in the ESL literature (Davies, 2004; Jenkins, 2000), yet it is the expectation of many corporate clients engaging the services of the call centre (Cowie, 2007, p. 329). Aneesh (2015, p. 57) found that training programmes targeting imitation of British English or American English in Indian call centres in the 1990s shifted towards a more ‘neutral accent’ in the 2000s, whereby ‘neutralization of regional accents was more important than sounding like an American’. Thus, the term ‘neutral’ may be a strategic construction in global communication promoted by call centre agencies.…”