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 »
In previous blog posts, we’ve mapped the availability of online labour in 2016 [1] and in 2017 [2] using the data provided by the Online Labour Index (OLI) measuring the utilization of online labour platforms [3]. The OLI is based on tracking all projects and tasks posted into a selected sample of platforms, using API access… Read More »
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 »
I had the opportunity to contribute to this new BCC World Service programme ‘Will AI kill development?’. Listen here, or contact me for an mp3 if you’re unable to access it. Summary Ian Goldin asks if robotisation will prevent poorer countries taking the traditional route to prosperity. Since World War Two, nation after nation has… Read More »
Amir Anwar and I have a new article out in First Monday. The piece think through what a planetary labour market entails, how it is relationally, spatially, and discursively constructed, and who it benefits. I’m pasting the abstract and conclusions below. Graham, M., and Anwar, M. A. 2019. The Global Gig Economy: Towards a Planetary… Read More »
The Geonet team will attend next year’s Global Conference of Economic Geography (GCEG) in full strength, running two hopefully lively sessions. Both run under the larger theme “Digital Economies, Digital Connectivity, Digital Margins.” Papers can be submitted between 15 Nov 2017 and 15 March 2018 on the GCEG website (https://www.gceg2018.com). Digital Economies, Digital Connectivity,… Read More »
In a previous blog post, we’ve mapped the availability of online labour in 2016 [1] using the data provided by the Online Labour Index (OLI) measuring the utilization of online labour platforms [2]. The OLI is based on tracking all projects and tasks posted into a selected sample of platforms, using API access and web scraping.… Read More »
New forms of digital work have emerged which, in theory, can be done from anywhere. Does this mean that geography no longer matters to digital work? Not exactly. My new chapter with Amir Anwar draws on our empirical research into digital labor to outline how geography still matters, and who it matters for in a… Read More »
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 of workers. Drawing on a multi-year study with digital workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-east… Read More »
The European Trade Union Institute has just put together a 40-page report that comes out of their conference on ‘Shaping the new world of work. The impacts of digitalisation and robotisation’, held from 27-29 June 2016 in Brussels. I spoke in the Plenary on ‘technology’, and spoke about both fears for digital workers, and potential… Read More »