Digital | Economy | Africa – a year on, the ‘Digital’ is as important as ever!

A year ago, we had the pleasure and privilege of convening the Digital | Economy | Africa Conference at the School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg. This conference brought together key international experts and stakeholders and covered the themes of digital entrepreneurship, digital jobs/gig work, information economy, innovation hubs, and the changing geographies… Read More »

Digital Labour at Economic Margins: African Workers and the Global Information Economy. (Forthcoming Publication)

I have a new publication coming out soon in the Review of African Political Economy, with my colleague Mark Graham. The paper is based on the research we have been carrying out over a number of years in Africa. It deals with the role African digital labour is playing in the global information economy and… Read More »

Hidden Transcripts of the Gig Economy: Labour Agency and the New Art of Resistance among African Gig Workers. (New Publication)

I have a new publication out with my colleague Amir Anwar that draws on the years of research we have done with digital workers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Details, and a link to download the paper are below. Anwar, M. A. and Graham, M. (Forthcoming) Hidden Transcripts of the Gig Economy: Labour Agency and the New… Read More »

Call for papers: Digital Work in the Planetary Market (AAG 2020)

Call for papers: Digital Work in the Planetary Market Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers Denver, Colorado April 6-10, 2020 Session Organizers: Mark Graham, Fabian Ferrari Sponsored by the Economic Geography Specialty Group (EGSG) Work, and the networks that extract value from it, are increasingly embedded into planetary systems. As ever more work… Read More »

Society and the Internet: How Networks of Information and Communication are Changing Our Lives (second edition) now out!

23 July 2019 0

I’m thrilled to announce that the second edition of Society and the Internet is now out!! The book has been fully updated since the first edition and contains new chapters on topics such as fake news, memes, digital health, and the platform economy. The volume contains 24 chapters from authors who speak from a diverse… Read More »

The Digital Knowledge Economy Index: Mapping Content Production

23 May 2019 0

The Geonet team has a new paper out: Ojanperä, S., Graham, M., and Zook, M. 2019. The Digital Knowledge Economy Index: Mapping Content Production. The Journal of Development Studies. DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2018.1554208. The paper proposes the construction of a Digital Knowledge Economy Index. It then compares country rankings on this index to more traditional metrics like… Read More »

New Article: Does economic upgrading lead to social upgrading in contact centers? Evidence from South Africa.

Mark Graham and I have just published a new article in the African Geographical Review. The article’s main argument is that economic upgrading in the South African BPO industry can lead to both social upgrading and downgrading among contact centre agents. Anwar, M. A. and Graham, M. (2019) Does economic upgrading lead to social upgrading… Read More »