Digital Economies at Global Margins

by Mark Graham (Editor)

Overview

Investigations of what increasing digital connectivity and the digitalization of the economy mean for people and places at the world's economic margins.

Within the last decade, more than one billion people became new Internet users. Once, digital connectivity was confined to economically prosperous parts of the world; now Internet users make up a majority of the world's population. In this book, contributors from a range of disciplines and locations investigate the impact of increased digital connectivity on people and places at the world's economic margins. Does the advent of a digitalized economy mean that those in economic peripheries can transcend spatial, organizational, social, and political constraints—or do digital tools and techniques tend to reinforce existing inequalities?

The contributors present a diverse set of case studies, reporting on digitalization in countries ranging from Chile to Kenya to the Philippines, and develop a broad range of theoretical positions. They consider, among other things, data-driven disintermediation, women's economic empowerment and gendered power relations, digital humanitarianism and philanthropic capitalism, the spread of innovation hubs, and two cases of the reversal of core and periphery in digital innovation.

Contributors
Niels Beerepoot, Ryan Burns, Jenna Burrell, Julie Yujie Chen, Peter Dannenberg, Uwe Deichmann, Jonathan Donner, Christopher Foster, Mark Graham, Nicolas Friederici, Hernan Galperin, Catrihel Greppi, Anita Gurumurthy, Isis Hjorth, Lilly Irani, Molly Jackman, Calestous Juma, Dorothea Kleine, Madlen Krone, Vili Lehdonvirta, Chris Locke, Silvia Masiero, Hannah McCarrick,Deepak K. Mishra, Bitange Ndemo, Jorien Oprins, Elisa Oreglia, Stefan Ouma, Robert Pepper, Jack Linchuan Qiu, Julian Stenmanns, Tim Unwin, Julia Verne, Timothy Waema

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262349475
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/12/2019
Series:	International Development Research Centre
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Graham is Professor of Internet Geography at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford the editor (with William H. Dutton) of Society and the Internet: How Networks of Information and Communication Are Changing Our Lives.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 Changing Connectivity and Digital Economies at Global Margins

Opening Essays 19

Marginal Benefits at the Global Margins: The Unfulfilled Potential of Digital Technologies Uwe Deichmann Deepak Mishra 21

Toward the Transformative Power of Universal Connectivity Bitange Ndemo 25

A Data-Driven Approach to Closing the Internet Inclusion Gap Robert Pepper Molly Jackman 29

Digital Services and Industrial Inclusion: Growing Africa's Technological Complexity Calestous Juma 33

Platforms at the Margins Jonathan Donner Chris Locke 39

Digital Economies at Global Margins: A Warning from the Dark Side Tim Unwin 43

Digital Globality and Economic Margins-Unpacking Myths, Recovering Materialities Anita Gurumurthy 47

1 Digitalization at Global Margins 53

2 Making Sense of Digital Disintermediation and Development: The Case of the Mombasa Tea Auction Christopher Foster Mark Graham Timothy Mwolo Waema 55

3 Development or Divide? Information and Communication Technologies in Commercial Small-Scale Farming in East Africa Madlen Krone Peter Dannenberg 79

4 Digital Inclusion, Female Entrepreneurship, and the Production of Neoliberal Subjects-Views from Chile and Tanzania Hannah McCarrick Dorothea Kleine 103

5 "Let the Private Sector Take Care of This": The Philanthro-Capitalism of Digital Humanitarianism Ryan Burns 129

6 The Digitalization of Anti-poverty Programs: Aadhaar and the Reform of Social Protection in India Silvia Masiero 153

7 The Myth of Market Price Information: Mobile Phones and the Application of Economic Knowledge in ICTD Jenna Burrell Elisa Oreglia 173

II Digital Production at Global Margins 191

8 Hope and Hype in Africa's Digital Economy: The Rise of Innovation Hubs Nicolas Friederici 193

9 Hackathons and the Cultivation of Platform Dependence Lilly Irani 223

10 Meeting Social Objectives with Offshore Service Work: Evaluating Impact Sourcing in the Philippines Jorien Oprins Niels Beerepoot 249

11 Digital Labor and Development: Impacts of Global Digital Labor Platforms and the Gig Economy on Worker Livelihoods Mark Graham Isis Hjorth Vili Lehdonvirta 269

12 Geographic Discrimination in the Gig Economy Hernan Galperin Catrihel Greppi 295

13 Margins at the Center: Alternative Digital Economies in Shenzhen, China Jack Linchuan Qiu Julie Yujie Chen 319

14 African Economies: Simply Connect? Problematizing the Discourse on Connectivity in Logistics and Communication Stefan Ouma Julian Stenmanns Julia Verne 341

Author Affiliations 365

Index 367