TERRITORIAL DISPERSION OF CONTACT CENTERS TO THE BRAZILIAN NORTHEAST

• Grant number: 23/16690-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: March 09, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Marina Castro de Almeida
• Grantee: Danilo Roberto Fioramonte
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to analyze the territorial dispersion of teleservice operations in the Northeast Region of Brazil. The expansion of operations in the Brazilian market, practically non-existent before privatizations, was significant between 1999 and 2019. In the Northeast region, the growth in the number of operators reveals two distinct movements. The first, between 2003 and 2011, with concentration in the three Metropolitan Regions of Salvador (BA), Recife (PE) and Fortaleza (CE), and the second from 2012 onwards, with the expansion of operations to other metropolitan regions and to interior cities. One of the hypotheses to be investigated is that the most important criterion for choosing municipalities to set up operations is the reduction of labor costs. To this end, the methodology used will be the analysis of companies' territorial strategies, through the study of three-yearly reports available on their websites and economic bulletins. For the analysis of the municipalities that concentrate operations in the sector, the sources used will be the Annual List of Social Information (RAIS), the General Register of Employed and Unemployed Persons (CAGED) and the IBGE - Central Register of Companies. The studies will be subsidized by carrying out questionnaires and interviews online, through videoconferences or telephone calls. Media monitoring tools will also be used to track mentions and news about the companies studied. Finally, it is intended to support the more general analysis of how the incorporation of devalued areas and vulnerable workers deepens Brazil's uneven geographic development by widening regional inequalities.