Three visions for how information and communication technologies alter positionalities at global economic margins

I’m currently working on a book chapter about our ‘digital labour and gig economy‘ research. The chapter attempts to contextualise plans and projects to expand digital labour schemes by governments, third-sector organisations, and private sector actors. In writing the chapter, I thought it… Continue Reading

Anticipating Blockchain for Development: Data, Power and the Future

In this post, Margie Cheesman, the CII group’s new anthropologist, tells us about her background research and doctoral interests, which are at the intersection of digital infrastructures and international development. Can blockchains and other distributed ledger technologies deliver significant social… Continue Reading

New paper: Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods

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 places that need them, it becomes important to understand better how this might influence the livelihoods… Continue Reading

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