In this article, I aim to cast light on the arguably indeterminate phenomenon of the global labour market (GLM) by placing the focus on an industry that has sometimes been perceived as epitomizing homogeneity and ‘world flatness’ in its deployment of geographically dispersed knowledge workers, that of international software development. Engaging in a sanguine analysis of this industry with reference to an empirical study of outsourcing to Ukraine it is revealed that labour markets servicing ICT (Information and communication technology) are subject to deep, if fluctuating, social stratifications. With reference to the notion of the global value chain (GVC),11 ¹GVC analysis focuses on the governance patterns and relational dynamics between lead and supplier firms at the sectoral level. The GVC and its predecessor, the global commodity chain (GCC) focus on the inter‐firm linkages and especially power relations between different actors (Feuerstein 2013). The similar concept of global production network (GPN) concerns the broader set of relations of power, positionality and value capture between all relevant firm and extra firm actors within a network (Thompson 2013). For this study on sourcing in the global software industry, the term GVC will be utilized throughout.
the significance of factors such as knowledge, language, citizenship and age as labour market differentiators for knowledge work is brought to the fore.

中文翻译：

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国际知识工作中的全球价值链：网络，分层和劳动力市场

在本文中，我旨在通过关注一个有时在其地理分布分散的知识工作者的部署中被视为统一性和“世界平坦性”的行业来阐明全球劳动力市场（GLM）可能不确定的现象。 ，国际软件开发。结合对乌克兰外包的实证研究，对该行业进行了乐观的分析，结果表明，为ICT（信息和通信技术）服务的劳动力市场会受到深度（即使是波动的）社会分层的影响。关于全球价值链（GVC）的概念，11 ^{1全球价值}链分析着重于行业层面上铅与供应商公司之间的治理模式和关系动态。全球价值链及其前身全球商品链（GCC）关注企业间的联系，尤其是不同参与者之间的权力关系（Feuerstein 2013）。全球生产网络（GPN）的类似概念涉及网络中所有相关公司和额外公司参与者之间更广泛的权力，地位和价值获取关系（Thompson 2013）。对于这项有关全球软件行业采购的研究，将始终使用术语GVC。
知识，语言，公民身份和年龄等因素作为劳动力市场差异化知识工作的重要性日益凸显。