The Impact of Connectivity in Africa: Grand Visions and the Mirage of Inclusive Digital Development

My colleagues Nicolas Friederici, Sanna Ojanperä, and I have recently finished a paper in which we analyse ‘Grand Visions’ of how Internet connectivity affects development in Africa. In the paper, we contrast these visions with the actually available empirical evidence to support those claims.… Continue Reading

Harare’s Hubs: Excitement, Experimentation, and Many Open Questions

During the interviews I conducted in Zimbabwe last October, many participants asked me: “Why pick Harare as a case study? Why not Nairobi or Lagos?” Indeed, Harare’s “ecosystem” is nascent, and the few tech startups that exist are hampered by… Continue Reading

Digital Labour and Development

The picture above was taken in Pasig City in the Philippines. The poster advertising free wifi is symbolic of the changing connectivities of a country in which more than 30 million people are now Internet users. Whereas the advert on the the left is symbolic of… Continue Reading

Call for Papers – Digital Connectivity, Inclusion, and Inequality at the World’s Economic Margins

Digital Connectivity, Inclusion, and Inequality at the World’s Economic Margins AAG Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 21-25, 2015 (sponsored by the Development Geography Research Group) Organisers: Mark Graham and Chris Foster, University of Oxford We are in the throes of a… Continue Reading