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Profile

I am the Professor of Internet Geography at the Oxford Internet Institute, a Faculty Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, a Senior Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, a Research Affiliate in the University of Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment, a Research Associate at the Centre for Information Technology and National Development in Africa at the University of Cape Town, and a Visiting Researcher at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and Technische Universität Berlin. I lead a range of research projects spanning topics between digital labour, the gig economy, internet geographies, and ICTs and development; and am accepting PhD students with an interest in any of that work.

About My Research

I have spent the last few years investigating the implications of new types of digital labour for workers in the Global South. This research is ongoing in my team’s work on outsourcing and microwork, as well as digital/platform work more broadly. At the moment, the tens of millions of workers who do digital work do so in a largely unregulated and socially disembedded way. This clearly benefits some workers, but we should also worry about a race to the bottom occurring as ever more people connect to the Internet. As such, together with colleagues on three continents, I have started an action research project called the Fairwork Foundation. The project conducts research that creates incentives and disincentives for fairer work in the platform economy.

Previous research has focused on digital entrepreneurship and the ways that conditions in African cities shape practices of local entrepreneurs (as part of a large project about African ‘knowledge economies‘), and on how the internet can impact production networks (of tea, tourism, and outsourcing) in East Africa, and asked who wins and loses from those changes. I co-founded and lead the ‘Connectivity, Inclusion, and Inequality‘ and ‘Big Data and Human Development‘ research clusters at Oxford.

Digital Geographies is my most long-standing research area. I ask how people and places are ever more defined by, and made visible through, not only their traditional physical locations and properties, but also their virtual attributes and digital shadows. If the places that we live in are increasingly digital, then there are important questions about who controls, and has access to, our digitally-augmented and digitally-mediated worlds. I have written extensively about this topic in both the academic and popular press. I also tend to use a lot of internet geography maps to tell this story.

Teaching

I teach a course at the OII called ‘Economic Development in Digital Capitalism‘ that focuses on the winners and losers in the contexts of rapidly changing global connectivity. The course examines how the digital economy can impact on the economic positionalities of people and practices at economic peripheries. I have previously taught courses on: Advanced Qualitative Research, Social Research Methods and the Internet, Globalisation, Introduction to Human Geography, the Collection and Analysis of Geographic Data, Economic Geography, and GIS.

Awards

I am grateful to have had much of my research funded by donors such as the European Research Council, the ESRC, the British Academy, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, IDRC, NSF, and the Leverhulme Trust. I am also fortunate to have been able to work with a diverse group of wonderful scholars and thinkers.

Other

I try to maintain a blog to regularly share thoughts and new outputs. If you want to get in touch, you can find my contact details on this page.

I come from a working class background, and feel strongly about the roles that an elite university like Oxford can (and should) play in broadly disseminating knowledge beyond its walls, and in attempting to amplify the voices of traditionally marginalised groups. Students and colleagues in similar situations, my door is open.

Select Current Writing

For more of his writing, please visit his full list of publications.

Positions held at the OII

  • Professor of Internet Geography, July 2016 –
  • Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor, May 2014 – June 2016
  • Senior Research Fellow, August 2013 – May 2014
  • Director of Research, October 2012 – December 2013
  • Research Fellow, October 2009 – July 2013

Students supervised at the OII

Current students

Past students

Research

Current projects

  • A Fairwork Foundation: Towards fair work in the platform economy

    Participants: Professor Mark Graham, Dr Jamie Woodcock, Adam Badger

    The Fairwork Foundation will certify online labour platforms, using leverage from workers, consumers, and platforms to improve the welfare and job quality of digital workers.

  • GCRF Decent Work: FAIRWORK in the Platform Economy in the Global South

    Participants: Prof D'Arcy Du Toit, Prof Sandra Fredman, Prof Mark Graham, Prof Richard Heeks, Prof Jean-Paul Van Belle, Dr Jamie Woodcock

    This project aims to understand the contextual, contractual and practical nature of platform work, to identify its shortfall from decent work standards and to contribute to the development of its governance and regulation.

  • GeoNet: Changing Connectivities and the Potentials of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Knowledge Economy

    Participants: Professor Mark Graham, Dr Stefano De Sabbata, Nicolas Friederici, Dr Christopher Foster, Sanna Ojanperä, Dr Mohammad Amir Anwar, Dr Fabian Braesemann, Michel Wahome

    This research project is examining the geographies, drivers, and effects of Sub-Saharan Africa's emerging information economies at a time of changing connectivity and Internet access across the region.

  • Internet Geographies Leverhulme Prize

    Participants: Prof Mark Graham, Dr Martin Dittus

    As digital augmentations of our world become ever more embedded into everyday life, this project asks where they are, what they are, and who owns, controls, and can shape them.

Past projects

Books

Chapters

  • SHAW, J. and GRAHAM, M. (2018) "Ein informationelles Recht auf Stadt? Code, Content, Kontrolle und die Urbanisierung von Information" In: Smart City - Kritische Perspektiven auf die Digitalisierung in Städten Bauriedl, S. and Strüver, A. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. 177-204.
  • OJANPERA, S.M.O., GRAHAM, M., De sabbata, S. and Straumann, R. (2018) "Uneven Digital Geographies ...and why they matter" In: This Is Not an Atlas.
  • Graham, M. (2018) "Rethinking the Geoweb and Big Data: Future Research Directions" In: Thinking Big Data in Geography: New Regimes, New Research. 231-236.
  • Graham, M. and Anwar, M.A. (2018) "Two models for a fairer sharing economy" In: The Cambridge Handbook of Law and Regulation of the Sharing Economy Nestor Davidson, John Infranca, and MicheÌle Finck Davidson, N., Infranca, J. and Finck, M. (eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Shaw, J. and Graham, M. (2017) "An Informational Right to the City? Code, Content, Control, and the Urbanization of Information" In: The Right to the City: A Verso Report. London: Verso.
  • Graham, M. and Anwar, M.A. (2017) "Digital Labour" In: Digital Geographies Ash, J., Kitchin, R. and Leszczynski, A. (eds.).
  • Graham, M. (2017) "Digitally Augmented Geographies" In: Understanding Spatial Media Kitchin, R., Lauriault, T.P. and Wilson, M.W. (eds.). 44-55.
  • Ford, H. and Graham, M. (2016) "Semantic Cities: Coded Geopolitics and the Rise of the Semantic Web" In: Code and the City Kitchin, R. and Perng, S.-.Y. (eds.). London: Routledge. 200-214.
  • Allagui, I., Graham, M. and Hogan, B. (2015) "Wikipedia Arabe et la Construction Collective du Savoir (Wikipedia Arabic and the Collective Construction of Knowledge)" In: Wikipedia, objet scientifique non identifie Barbe, L., Merzeau, L. and Schafer, V. (eds.). Paris: Presses Universitaries du Paris Ouest. 177-194.
  • Poorthuis, A., Zook, M., Shelton, T., Graham, M. and Stephens, M. (2014) "Using Geotagged Digital Social Data in Geographic Research" In: Key Methods in Geography Clifford, N., French, S., Cope, M. and Gillespie, T. (eds.). London: Sage. 248-269.
  • Graham, M. (2013) "Reaching Audiences Through Blogs and Social Media" In: Publishing and Getting Read: A Guide for Researchers in Geography Blunt, A. and Souch, C. (eds.). Royal Geographical Society.
  • Haarstad, H. (2012) "Global Production Patterns" In: 21st Century Geography: A Reference Handbook. SAGE Publications, Inc.. 411-420.
  • Zook, M., Graham, M. and Shelton, T. (2011) "The Presidential Placemark Poll" In: Atlas of the 2008 Elections Brunn, S. (eds.). Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Graham, M. (2011) "Wiki space: palimpsests and the politics of exclusion" In: Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader Lovink, G. and Tkacz, N. (eds.). Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. 269-282.
  • Graham, M. (2011) "Cultural Brokers, the Internet, and Value Chains" In: The Cultural Wealth of Nations Wherry, F. and Bandelj, N. (eds.). Stanford: Stanford University Press. 222-239.
  • Graham, M. (2011) "Cloud collaboration: peer-production and the engineering of the internet" In: Engineering Earth Brunn, S. (eds.). New York: Springer. 67-83.
  • Graham, M., Shelton, T. and Zook, M. (2010) "Map of U.S. Abortion Providers and Alternatives" In: Mapping America: Exploring the Continent Kessler, F.C. and Jacobs, F. (eds.). Black Dog Publishing. 140-141.
  • Brunn, S., Ghose, R. and Graham, M. (2008) "Cities of the Future and the Future of Cities" In: Cities of the World Brunn, S., Hays-Mitchell, M. and Ziegler, D. (eds.). Rowman and Littlefield. 565-613.
  • Zook, M. and Graham, M. (2007) "From Cyberspace to DigiPlace: Visibility in an Age of Information and Mobility" In: Societies and Cities in the Age of Instant Access Miller, H.J. (eds.). Springer Netherlands. 231-244.
  • GRAHAM, M., OJANPERA, S.M.O. and DITTUS, M. "Internet geographies: Data shadows and digital divisions of labor" In: Internet and Society.
  • Graham, M. "Die welt in der Wikipedia AIs politik der exklusion: palimpseste des ortes und selective darstellung" In: Wikipedia Lampe, S. and Baumer, P. (eds.). Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb.
  • Zook, M. and Graham, M. "Wal-Mart Nation: Mapping the Reach of a Retail Colossus" In: Wal-Mart World Brunn, S. (eds.). 15-25.

Conference papers

  • DITTUS, M., wright, J. and graham, M. (2018) "Platform Criminalism: The Last-Mile Geography of the Darknet Market Supply Chain", Proceedings of the 2018 World Wide Web Conference on World Wide Web - WWW '18. ACM The Web Conference (WWW), Lyon, France, 23 – 27 April 2018. ACM. 277-286.
  • Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Barnard, H. and Hjorth, I. (2016) "Virtual Production Networks: Fixing Commodification and Disembeddedness", Development Studies Association 2016. DSA 2016: Development Studies Association Conference.
  • Ojanpera, S., Graham, M., Straumann, R. and De Sabbata, S. (2016) "Measuring the Contours of the Global Knowledge Economy with a Digital Index", Development Studies Association Conference.
  • Wood, A., Graham, M. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2016) "The new frontier of outsourcing: online labour markets and the consequences for poverty in the Global South.", Work, Employment and Society Conference. SAGE Publications (UK and US).
  • Kassi, O.A., Lehdonvirta, V., Graham, M., Barnard, H. and Hjorth, I. (2016) “Not a Lot of People Know Where It Is”: Liabilities of Origin in Online Contract Work. Collective Intelligence, NYU, New York, 31 May – 2 September 2016.
  • Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Barnard, H. and Hjorth, I. (2016) "Virtual Production Networks: Fixing Commodification and Disembeddedness", GPNs and social upgrading: labour and beyond - Workshop.
  • Smart, C., Donner, J. and Graham, M. (2016) "Connecting the World from the Sky: Spatial Discourses around Internet Access in the Developing World", Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development. Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, Ann Arbor, 3 – 6 June 2016. ACM Press. 03-06-June-2016.
  • Sen, S.W., Ford, H., Musicant, D.R., Graham, M., Keyes, O.S.B. and Hecht, B. (2015) "Barriers to the Localness of Volunteered Geographic Information", Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '15. the 33rd Annual ACM Conference, 18 – 23 April 2015. ACM Press. 2015-April 197-206.
  • Lehdonvirta, V., Barnard, H., Graham, M. and Hjorth, I. (2014) "Online labour markets - levelling the playing field for international service markets?", IPP2014: Crowdsourcing for Politics and Policy conference, University of Oxford,.
  • Zook, M., Graham, M. and Shelton, T. (2011) "Analyzing global cyberscapes: Mapping geo-coded Internet information", ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. the 2011 iConference, 8 – 11 February 2011. ACM Press. 522-530.
  • Zook, M.A. and Graham, M. (2007) "From cyberspace to DigiPlace: Visibility in an age of information and mobility", SOCIETIES AND CITIES IN THE AGE OF INSTANT ACCESS. Springer Netherlands. 88 241-254.

Journal articles

Reports

Other

  • Ojanpera, S. and Graham, M. (2017) Africa's digital knowledge economy worrying. SciDev.Net.
  • Graham, M. (2015) Digital work signals a global race to the bottom. SciDev.Net.
  • Zook, M., Shelton, T., Poorthuis, A., Donohue, R., Wilson, M., Graham, M. and Stephens, M. (2015) What would a floating sheep map?. Lexington, KY: Oves Natantes Press.
  • Wood, A., Graham, M., Anwar, M. and Ramizo Jr, G. Minimum wages on online labour platforms: a response to the ETUI and IG Metall's request for comment.

Internet publications

  • Graham, M. and Wood, A. (2016) Why the digital gig economy needs co-ops and unions. openDemocracy.

Media

  • Ojanpera, S. and Graham, M. (2017) Africa’s digital knowledge economy worrying.

Working papers

  • Wood, A.J. and Graham, M. (2018) The government consultation on employment classification and control: a response.

Teaching

  • Economic Development in Digital Capitalism

    Introducing the debates and practices surrounding ICT uses in the Global South and Global North, drawing on Anthropology, Development Studies, Economics, Geography and History to examine the theoretical and conceptual frameworks that underpin development.

Videos

News

Events

Blog

Press