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Start date:
Mar 2014
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End date:
Feb 2017
- Contact:
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Funder:
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
This project aims to understand the implications of gig economy and online freelancing for economic development.
Overview
Sub-Saharan Africa has traditionally been characterised by stark barriers to non-proximate communication and flows of information. However, in the last few years, there have been radical changes to SSA’s international connectivity; fibre-optic cables have been laid throughout the continent and there are now almost one hundred million Internet users and over seven hundred million mobile users in the region.
This rapid transformation in the region’s connectivity has encouraged politicians, journalists, academics, and citizens to speak of an Internet-fuelled economic revolution happening on the continent. For the first time in decades, Sub-Saharan Africa is receiving more capital through investment than in foreign aid and many see the potential for SSA to move away from dependence on agriculture and extractive industries and towards a focus on the quaternary and quinary sectors (in other words, the knowledge-based parts of the economy).
However, while much research has been conducted into the impacts of ICTs into older economic processes and practices, there remains surprisingly little research into the emergence of new transformative Internet and mobile-based economic activities and work in Africa. The question therefore remains if, and under which circumstances, we are seeing a new era of development on the continent fuelled by networked technologies, or whether Sub-Saharan Africa’s engagement with the global economy will continue to be on terms that reinforce dependence, underdevelopment, and economic extraversion.
Southeast Asia (SEA) is a region that has a population and demographics comparable to SSA, but that has enjoyed good international connectivity for somewhat longer. Due to its location between Europe and East Asia, Southeast Asia was traversed by some of the earliest submarine cables. A modern high-capacity fiber-optic cable providing direct links to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and the island of Borneo was completed in 2009. Although SEA is more prosperous than SSA, it, too, grapples with issues of development and dependency, and has seen improved connectivity lauded as ushering in a new era of development. SEA thus provides an interesting comparison to SSA: with socioeconomic similarities, but 3-10 years ahead of SSA in the connectivity revolution.
Research Questions
The purpose of this research project is to understand the current and potential impact of Internet and mobile technologies on social and economic development, especially when it comes to the emergence of new and transformative ‘virtual’ economic activities and work, such as ‘microwork’ and ‘game labour’. The project is designed to tackle this broad line of inquiry by (1) focusing on the geographies, drivers, and effects of Sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging virtual production networks at this important moment of change on the continent, and (2) contrasting these with developmental trajectories in Southeast Asia.
The project focuses on five core research questions:
- What is the overall landscape of virtual production networks in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia? Such a landscape includes the range of formal and informal, institutional as well as individual actors involved in virtual production, and their mutual relations and geographies.
- What factors explain the network structures that we see? Of interest here is what material, institutional or cultural factors might explain the structures observed in the virtual production networks, particularly if/when they differ from one country or region to the other.
- How are these networks changing over time? More specifically, we are interested in changes over the life of this project, but also larger trends spanning years and decades. Are SSA and SEA at different points of the same technology-driven development trajectory, or are they following distinct trajectories?
- Who benefits from SSA’s and SEA’s virtual production networks? A particular focus here is on the potentials for the underprivileged in society, and how the structures of the networks either benefit (e.g. by including them in production) or constrain (e.g. by placing them in poor bargaining positions) them.
- How do observed changes differ from public, political, and academic discourses surrounding potential effects? To maximize the impact of our empirical results, we must position them within existing debates and where necessary, challenge the existing truths.
Using a mixed-methods approach, we will be able document the challenges and barriers to productive engagement with virtual economies. We will discover who is benefitting, what difference remaining barriers and positionalities in SSA and SEA make, and ultimately what difference changing connectivities make in the world’s economic peripheries. This project will thus contribute not only to academic and policy debates surrounding connectivity and Internet access, but will also provide a robust evidence base crucial in shaping future rounds of Internet-related development projects and plans in low-income countries.
Support
This project is supported by the IDRC (International Development Research Centre).
Latest blog posts
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Ripensare la gig economy, per un lavoro più giusto
Date Published: 6 April 2018 - 12:47 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
Our Towards a Fairer Gig Economy Pamphlet is being translated into Italian in weekly instalments. Here’s the first one: https://www.openpolis.it/esercizi/verso-unaltra-gig-economy/ You can still get ...
Read More Ripensare la gig economy, per un lavoro più giusto -
Help us shape the Fairwork Foundation: request for feedback
Date Published: 23 March 2018 - 10:20 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
In an earlier post, I described a new initiative that we recently started: The Fairwork Foundation. The goal of the Foundation is to certify ...
Read More Help us shape the Fairwork Foundation: request for feedback -
The rise of the planetary labour market
Date Published: 30 January 2018 - 8:15 am
Authors: Mark Graham
I have a short piece in New Statesman about the rise of what I am calling a planetary labour market. I wrote it ...
Read More The rise of the planetary labour market
People
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Professor Mark Graham
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Principal Investigator
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Dr Isis Hjorth
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Researcher
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Professor Vili Lehdonvirta
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Co-Investigator
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Dr Alex J Wood
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Researcher
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Professor Helena Barnard
Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria
Co-Investigator
Journal articles
- Graham, M., Hjorth, I., Lehdonvirta, V. (2017) Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research (in press)
Conference papers
- Lehdonvirta, V., Barnard, H., Graham, M., and Hjorth, I. (2014) Online labour markets – levelling the playing field for international service markets? Paper presented at the IPP2014: Crowdsourcing for Politics and Policy conference, University of Oxford, 25-26 September 2014.
Events
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Digital Transformations of Work Conference
10 March 2016, 09:00:00 - 16:30:00
This conference is presented as part of the Green Templeton Transformation of Work Conference
Videos
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Digital Labour and Development: New Knowledge Economies or Digital Sweatshops
Duration: 00:33:38
Date: 10 March 2016
Professor Mark Graham explains that Digital labor is increasingly coming to the attention of policy-makers and development practitioners.
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Rentier Capitalism: Taskers in the Precariat
Duration: 00:31:35
Date: 10 March 2016
Professor Guy Standing explains how the globalisation of labour and work has produced a global precariat
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Digitization And Work: Potentials and Challenges in Low-Wage Labor Markets
Duration: 00:20:52
Date: 10 March 2016
Professor Saskia Sassen discusses the need to develop social categories and logics for understanding technology.
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Digital Labour and Exploitation: It’s not a Done Deal
Duration: 00:39:53
Date: 10 March 2016
Dr Karen Gregory provides an overview of digital labour and exploitation
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Fragmented time and the UK social care sector
Duration: 00:25:53
Date: 10 March 2016
Professor Jill Rubery provides a case study of care work in the UK which demonstrates that although technology facilitates ... Read More Fragmented time and the UK social care sector
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Divergent Temporalities: Polarisation or Marginalisation
Duration: 00:21:18
Date: 10 March 2016
Professor Kevin Doogan argues that technological change is not an autonomous process, which drives everything in its wake regardless ... Read More Divergent Temporalities: Polarisation or Marginalisation
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Digital Jobs in the EU and Self-Employment in Developing Countries
Duration: 00:21:26
Date: 10 March 2016
Dr Brendan Burchell defines digital jobs, shows their prevalence in Europe and then investigates their quality highlighting that in ... Read More Digital Jobs in the EU and Self-Employment in Developing Countries
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Online Platforms, Diversity and Fragmentation
Duration: 00:23:38
Date: 10 March 2016
Dr Vili Lehdonvirta, uses survey data and interviews with workers to show the heterogeneity of backgrounds and outcomes for ... Read More Online Platforms, Diversity and Fragmentation
Blog
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Ripensare la gig economy, per un lavoro più giusto
Date Published: 6 April 2018 - 12:47 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
Our Towards a Fairer Gig Economy Pamphlet is being translated into Italian in weekly instalments. Here’s the first one: https://www.openpolis.it/esercizi/verso-unaltra-gig-economy/ You can still get ...
Read More Ripensare la gig economy, per un lavoro più giusto -
Help us shape the Fairwork Foundation: request for feedback
Date Published: 23 March 2018 - 10:20 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
In an earlier post, I described a new initiative that we recently started: The Fairwork Foundation. The goal of the Foundation is to certify ...
Read More Help us shape the Fairwork Foundation: request for feedback -
The rise of the planetary labour market
Date Published: 30 January 2018 - 8:15 am
Authors: Mark Graham
I have a short piece in New Statesman about the rise of what I am calling a planetary labour market. I wrote it ...
Read More The rise of the planetary labour market -
Labour oversupply in the platform economy
Date Published: 22 December 2017 - 2:12 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
When I give talks about issues that arise in the context of a global market for digital work, one of the most important things ...
Read More Labour oversupply in the platform economy -
The shape of work to come
Date Published: 19 October 2017 - 9:24 am
Authors: Mark Graham
Nature just published a published a long article about the ‘three ways that the digital revolution is reshaping workforces around the world.’ Amir Anwar ...
Read More The shape of work to come -
Towards a Fairer Gig Economy
Date Published: 10 July 2017 - 10:08 am
Authors: Mark Graham
Our second pamphlet ‘Towards a Fairer Gig Economy’ is now out on Meatspace Press. We are pleased to offer it for free download (pdf, ...
Read More Towards a Fairer Gig Economy -
Minimum wages on online labour platforms
Date Published: 15 June 2017 - 8:25 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
A response to the ETUI and IG Metall’s request for comment. Download the PDF at: Wood, A., Graham, M., Anwar, M. A., Ramizo, G. ...
Read More Minimum wages on online labour platforms -
Introducing a FairWork Foundation
Date Published: 24 March 2017 - 11:35 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
A picture I took at a training programme for digital workers in Nairobi. The workers are being taught how to transcribe an audio file ...
Read More Introducing a FairWork Foundation -
New paper: Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods
Date Published: 21 March 2017 - 8:22 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
As ever more policy-makers, governments and organisations turn to the gig economy and digital labour as an economic development strategy to bring jobs to ...
Read More New paper: Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods -
New Report: Risks and Rewards of Online Gig Work at the Global Margins
Date Published: 20 March 2017 - 9:40 am
Authors: Mark Graham
The cartogram depicts countries as circles sized according to dollar inflow during March 2013 on a major online labour platform. The shading of the ...
Read More New Report: Risks and Rewards of Online Gig Work at the Global Margins -
What Impact is the Gig Economy Having on Development and Worker Livelihoods?
Date Published: 20 March 2017 - 7:46 am
Authors: Mark Graham
There are imbalances in the relationship between supply and demand of digital work, with the vast majority of buyers located in high-income countries (pictured). ...
Read More What Impact is the Gig Economy Having on Development and Worker Livelihoods? -
Birth of ENDL, the European Network on Digital Labour
Date Published: 9 March 2017 - 10:34 am
Authors: Mark Graham
From all over Europe, researchers in the emergent field of digital labour assembled in Paris for the launch event of ENDL, the European Network ...
Read More Birth of ENDL, the European Network on Digital Labour -
Join our London Digital Labour Meetup
Date Published: 26 February 2017 - 8:50 am
Authors: Mark Graham
If you are interested in scholarship or activism on the topic of digital labour and the future of work, then consider joining our regular ...
Read More Join our London Digital Labour Meetup -
Let’s make platform capitalism more accountable
Date Published: 20 December 2016 - 9:34 am
Authors: Mark Graham
What do Google, Uber, and Facebook have in common? You might think that the answer is that they are all technology companies. But actually ...
Read More Let’s make platform capitalism more accountable -
Introducing Alex Wood to the Microwork and Virtual Production Networks project
Date Published: 6 November 2015 - 12:09 pm
Authors: Mark Graham
We are lucky to have Alex Wood joining our team in the Microwork and Virtual Production Networks project! Alex is a sociologist of work and employment, ...
Read More Introducing Alex Wood to the Microwork and Virtual Production Networks project -
Uneven Geographies of Digital Wages
Date Published: 9 June 2015 - 10:36 am
Authors: Mark Graham
Dollar Inflow and Median Wage by Country Our previous post contained a few maps that shed light on the geographies of online work. But ...
Read More Uneven Geographies of Digital Wages
Press
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La ‘uberización’ del empleo llega a la Sanidad
Date Published: 14 October 2017
Source: El Pais
Mark Graham's interview with El Pais (Spanish) on the plan to ‘uberise’ the NHS.
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Uber’s New CEO Flies to London to Fight One of Many Fires
Date Published: 3 October 2017
Source: Bloomberg
"Workers tend to be the most vulnerable to harm," said Mark Graham: "They have no job security, and all it takes is a market downturn, a new competitor, or new regulations to be financially disastrous."
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How to resist the exploitation of digital gig workers
Date Published: 14 April 2017
Source: Red Pepper
For the first time in history, we have a mass migration of labour without an actual migration of workers. Mark Graham and Alex Wood explore the consequences
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What the Gig Economy Looks Like Around the World
Date Published: 13 April 2017
Source: The Atlantic
Mark Graham talks about the costs and benefits of digital freelance work.
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The Gig Economy and the Third World
Date Published: 6 April 2017
Source: Sputnik News
Helena Barnard, an author of the OII report ‘The Risks and Rewards of Online Gig Work at the Global Margins' discusses whether the gig economy will boost or destroy the economies of developing countries.
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“Gig economy” and its effects on working Africans
Date Published: 4 April 2017
Source: Africa News
Mark Graham discusses the opportunities and challenges of the new digital world for African workers [Radio, 4 min].
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Oxford Professor Mark Graham warns of ‘parasitic capitalism’ by digital companies
Date Published: 27 March 2017
Source: Times of Africa
Oxford Professor Mark Graham, while addressing the 4th UNI Africa Conference in Dakar, Senegal, warned of the danger of ‘parasitic capitalism’ where digital companies gave little back to the places where they are embedded.
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The global gig economy and its implications for African digital workers
Date Published: 27 March 2017
Source: Intelligent CIO
Addressing the 4th UNI Africa Conference in Dakar, Senegal, Mark Graham warned of the danger of ‘parasitic capitalism’ where digital companies give little back to the places where they are embedded and platform workers are left to fend for themselves.
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Pay crash expected in online gig economy as millions seek work
Date Published: 24 March 2017
Source: New Scientist
A huge number of people in South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa looking for online “gig economy” work could cause a race to the bottom on pay and conditions, according to a new report from the Oxford Internet Institute.
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The hidden dangers of the global gig economy
Date Published: 21 March 2017
Source: Wired
Oxford Internet Institute researchers say we need an equivalent of the Fairtrade Foundation to protect workers online
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A Different View of Mapping
Date Published: 1 March 2017
Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review
Several platforms are using crowdsourcing and open-source technology to challenge Google’s dominance over how we see the world. Mark Graham comments.
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Industry 4.0 – what does it mean for workers?
Date Published: 29 June 2016
Source: Uni Global Union
Mark Graham of the Oxford Internet Institute says he found significant levels of income inequality on crowd work platforms such as Mechanical Turk with 80% of workers on one such site receiving only 10% of the income.
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Organising the Digital “Wild West”: Can Strategic Bottlenecks Help Prevent a Race to the Bottom for Online Workers?
Date Published: 11 May 2016
Source: Union Solidarity International
Mark Graham discusses the atomised world of online work and points to ways in which a "race to the bottom" might be avoided.
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Low income and high competition — digital jobs in a neoliberal age
Date Published: 1 April 2016
Source: Union Solidarity International
Amir Anwar discusses the impact of digital work platforms such as Upwork on working lives, and debunks the idea that digital jobs are an easy solution to poverty.
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Technology, power and culture — what’s driving the digital transformation of work?
Date Published: 31 March 2016
Source: Union Solidarity International
Alex Wood discusses zero hour contracts and the impact of changing technologies on working lives.
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Digital Transformations of work: Digital work & the global precariat
Date Published: 30 March 2016
Source: Union Solidarity International
In the first article of a three-part series exploring "Digital Transformations of Work", Mark Graham of the Oxford Internet Institute discusses the "worrying futures" facing digital workers, as well as outlining prospects for alternatives.
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As More Work Moves Online, The Threat of ‘Digital Sweatshops’ Looms
Date Published: 22 March 2016
Source: Motherboard
Mark Graham talks about some of the early findings of research on how the internet is shifting work patterns in south east Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Exploring the Flow of Digital Labour
Date Published: 1 February 2016
Source: Asia Research News
Just as online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have rewired our social connections, a wave of digital service platforms is transforming the world of work. Mark Graham writes in Asia Research News
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Africa: Digital Work Signals a Global Race to the Bottom
Date Published: 15 September 2015
Source: allAfrica
Mark Graham writes about his research with Vili Lehdonvirta into the effect of online technologies on the African labour market. By connecting rich and poor into one labour market, workers' rights could be damaged, he says.
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Digital Work Signals a Global Race to the Bottom
Date Published: 15 September 2015
Source: SciDevNet
Online technologies could hurt workers' rights by connecting rich and poor into one labour market, says Mark Graham.
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Micro-travailleurs de tous les pays, unissez-vous!
Date Published: 1 July 2015
Source: Usbek et Rica
Under the title, Micro-workers of the world unite, the French magazine explores the world of micro-working. It quotes Mark Graham, who says that micro-workers can often be victims of abuse. (French language article)
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Broadband may be East Africa’s 21st century railway to the world
Date Published: 17 November 2014
Source: The Conversation
Similarities and differences in the hopes, expectations and fears surrounding the advent of the Uganda Railway in 1903 and the introduction of the internet to Africa in 2009 have been compared by Mark Graham and team.
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Google in fight to stop global removal of sensitive links
Date Published: 23 July 2014
Source: Financial Times
Google is braced for a showdown with European privacy watchdogs over the demands for the continent's 'right to be forgotten' online to be extended across the world. Ian Brown comments.
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Infographic: A freelance working week revealed
Date Published: 24 April 2014
Source: Wired.co.uk
Wired.co.uk reports on Mark Graham’s work on mapping patterns of work as part of a project on virtual labour. He will be visiting eight countries in Asia and Africa over two years to carry out the essential field work.