Recent outputs – on Data-for-Development; Digital Labour; Digital Platforms; Digital Society; Ed Tech; MSc Programme – from Centre for Digital Development researchers, University of Manchester:
DATA-FOR-DEVELOPMENT
“Data Powered Positive Deviance: Combining Traditional and Non-Traditional Data to Identify and Characterise Development-Related Outperformers” (open access) by Basma Albanna, Richard Heeks, Julia Handl and colleagues from the DPPD project, presents a new methodology through which datasets can be used to identify “positive deviants” – those who outperform their peers in development – and to identify and scale the factors behind their outperformance.
“Publication Outperformance among Global South Researchers: An Analysis of Individual-Level and Publication-Level Predictors of Positive Deviance” (open access) by Basma Albanna, Julia Handl & Richard Heeks, uses interviews, a survey and analysis of online datasets to identify those among a group of global South researchers who outperform their peers. It identifies characteristics of both the high-performing researchers and their publications.
DIGITAL LABOUR
“Systematic Evaluation of Gig Work Against Decent Work Standards: The Development and Application of the Fairwork Framework” (open access) by Richard Heeks, Mark Graham, Paul Mungai, Jean-Paul Van Belle & Jamie Woodcock, explains the development and application of the Fairwork framework, which is used worldwide to rate gig economy platforms against decent work standards.
“Stripping Back the Mask: Working Conditions on Digital Labour Platforms during the COVID-19 Pandemic” (open access) by Kelle Howson, Funda Ustek-Spilda, Alessio Bertolini, Richard Heeks and other colleagues from the Fairwork project, analyses the Covid policies of 191 platforms in 43 countries. It finds some positive worker protections but also entrenchment of precarious work as platforms leverage the opportunities arising from the crisis.
DIGITAL PLATFORMS
“Digital Platforms for Development” (open access) by Brian Nicholson, Petter Nielsen & Johan Saebo, provides an editorial introduction to a special issue of Information Systems Journal on the link between digital platforms and development processes.
“Driving the Digital Value Network: Economic Geographies of Global Platform Capitalism” (open access) by Kelle Howson, Fabian Ferrari, Funda Ustek-Spilda, Richard Heeks and other colleagues from the Fairwork project, uses insights from global value chain and global production network frameworks to analyse power imbalances and value extraction across territories by gig economy platforms.
DIGITAL SOCIETY
“Toolkit for Measuring Digital Skills and Digital Literacy“ (open access) by authors at CSIS Indonesia, supported by Matthew Sharp, offers a comprehensive and original framework for measuring digital skills in Indonesia and other G20 countries. The toolkit incorporates insights from pilot individual and firm-level surveys on digital skills undertaken by CSIS in the Greater Jakarta area.
“How can Smart City Shape a Happier Life? The Mechanism for Developing a Happiness Driven Smart City” by Huiying Zhu, Liyin Shen & Yitian Ren, introduces a Happiness Driven Smart City (HDSC) mechanism, composed of a three-layer structure and underpinned by a set of strategic measures. A case study shows the HDSC mechanism’s effectiveness in helping decision makers understand the status quo, strengths and weaknesses of smart city development in their context, so that their SC blueprint can be better aligned towards a happiness-driven direction.
ED TECH
“The Effectiveness of Technology‐Supported Personalised Learning in Low‐and Middle‐Income Countries” (open access) by Louis Major, Gill Francis & Maria Tsapali, provides a meta-analysis examining the impact of students’ use of technology that personalises and adapts to learning level.
“Evaluating Digital Personalised Learning Tools in Kenya: A New Research Study” (blog) by Becky Daltry, Louis Major and others, reports on a new research study to rigorously evaluate the integration of digital personalised learninginto Kenyan classrooms for young children, aged between 4-8 years old.
MSc PROGRAMME
Centre for Digital Development staff provide the core directorship and teaching for the University’s new MSc programme in Digital Development, which will launch in Sept 2022.
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