CQU's cohort of research higher degree candidates is certainly dispersed, as shown by a recent call for submissions to Campus Review.

Among the replies was one from CQU PhD (Sociology) candidate Don Winiecki, who is an academic in Idaho, USA.

Supervised by Dr Bert Wigman at the Faculty of Arts, Health & Sciences, Don has just completed his fieldwork for an ethnography of work in call centres - a very dynamic form of work in the early 21st century.

He currently holds a doctor of education degree and is also an Associate Professor in the College of Engineering at Boise State University.

According to Don, there has been a steady decrease in the prevalence of primary (farming, fishing, mining) and secondary labour (manufacturing) and a dramatic increase in the prevalence of tertiary labour (services) in Western countries.

Alongside that has been the dramatic influx of computers and other forms of technology-mediation in tertiary labour.

"While there is a substantial corpus of sociological research on technologies in primary and secondary labour, a relatively small amount of sociological research exists on the social affects and effects of technology-mediation in tertiary labour," he said.

"This research is a critical ethnography conducted over two years in four call centres in a mid-sized city in the Intermountain Western United States.

"Its aims are to identify and detail the systems of thought and practice immanent in technology-mediated tertiary labour and to detail the mechanisms through which these systems influence the objectification and subjectivity of workers, management and society.".

Details are available via dwiniecki@boisestate.edu