In the past two decades, several millions of IT-enabled services jobs have been relocated or 'offshored' from the US and Europe to, in particular, low cost economies around the world. Most of these jobs so far have landed in South and South-East Asia, with India and the Philippines receiving the bulk of them. This has caused profound changes in the international division of labour, and has had correspondingly wide social and economic effects.

Chapter 1: The local impact of services offshoring in South and Southeast Asia: introduction and overview Part I: The latest wave in globalization: long-term and comparative perspectives Chapter 2: Service-sector driven economic development from a historical perspective Chapter 3: Services-led economic development: comparing the emergence of the offshore service sector in India and the Philippines Chapter 4: The BPO industry and the Philippine trade in services: boon or bane? Chapter 5: Inter-organizational linkages, global value chains and national innovation systems: disconnected realities in the Philippines Part II: Capitalizing on (offshore) services in the shadow of giants: a look beyond India and the Philippines Chapter 6: From the 'workshop of the world' to the 'office of the world'? Rethinking service-led development in the Pearl River Delta Chapter 7: Hong Kong as an offshore trading hub Chapter 8: Where footloose jobs and mobile people meet: the peculiar case of the Japanese call center industry in Bangkok Part III: Labour and industrial organization in the latest wave of globalization: opportunities, transformations and challenges Chapter 9: Exclusion in Asia's evolving global production and service outsourcing Chapter 10: How work in the Business Process Outsourcing sector (BPO) affects employability: perceptions of ex-BPO workers in Metro Manila Chapter 11: Corporatisation and standardisation of security services industry catering to ITES-BPO firms in Mumbai Part IV: Offshore services and the making of a new middle class Chapter 12: The rise of the new middle class and the role of off-shoring of services Chapter 13: How does the business process outsourcing industry contribute to the formation of a consumerist new middle class in Mumbai Chapter 14: Service outsourcing to smaller cities in the Philippines: the formation of an emerging local middle class Chapter 15: Conclusions: offshore services and the road to development

Bart Lambregts is post-doc researcher with the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam, and lectures urban planning at the Faculty of Architecture, Kasetsart University, in Bangkok.

Niels Beerepoot is assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies of the University of Amsterdam.

Robert C. Kloosterman is Professor of Economic Geography and Planning at the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam.