Recent outputs – on Digital economy; Digital labour; Digital transformation; Data-for-development – from Centre for Digital Development researchers, University of Manchester:
DIGITAL ECONOMY
Aligning Digital and Industrial Policy to Foster Future Industrialization (open access) by Chris Foster & Shamel Azmeh. Data is a key component of the digital economy. Many countries in the technology race are “digital latecomers” that lag behind the digital cutting edge. Industrial policies to support the technological capability of latecomers are well known, but less is known about how these can be aligned with strategies for the digital economy. Consequently, data policies are key for creating and capturing value in the digital economy. This paper discusses four emerging approaches.
Intellectual Property Rights and Control in the Digital Economy: Examining the Expansion of M-Pesa (open access) by Chris Foster. This study focuses on IPR in the Kenyan mobile money service M-Pesa. It charts how M-Pesa expanded from a development-orientated innovation in Kenya to become part of a global enterprise, with IPR central to tensions within the firm. This case study highlights the role of IPR and innovation in the digital economy more broadly examining the connection between global intellectual property regimes and power relations.
Shaping a Digitalising Infrastructure: Logistics and the Dynamics of Chinese-Southeast Asian E-Commerce (open access) by Chris Foster. Business models around e-commerce are shaped by logistics, yet there is little analysis of rulemaking. The paper to examine tensions in the case of Southeast Asia. It makes a critical discussion of emerging global rules. At the same time, it also examines the merits of Chinese “cross-border e-commerce” models which are becoming important to in the global south.
DIGITAL LABOUR
Analysing the Development Impact of the Gig Economy using Sen’s Capability Approach: A Case Study of the Physical Gig Economy in India (open access) by Hiroto Yanaka & Richard Heeks, analyses the development impact of the gig economy in India using Sen’s capability approach. It finds some capabilities being realised for some workers, but more widespread constraints on achievement of capabilities. Recommendations are made to improve development of freedoms through gig work.
Digital Platforms, Surveillance and Processes of Demoralization (open access) bySung Hwan Chai, Brian Nicholson, Robert Scapens & Chunlei Yang, conceptualizes a theoretical link between digital platforms and morality drawing on the eminent sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. The analysis focuses on a case study of a hotel in Vietnam and explains how surveillance from digital platforms suppressed workers’ moral impulse and fostered moral ambivalence towards such issues as invading others’ privacy, pressuring others outside working hours, and increasing surveillance in the workplace.
Gig Worker Response to Algorithmic and Other Management Practices in India: A Study of Drivers from Ride-Hailing Platforms (open access) by Ipshita Chakraborty & Richard Heeks, examines the lived experience of gig workers in India and the role of contextual factors in influencing management processes and evolution of the psychological contract with the platform organisation over time.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
The Principles of Digital Transformation for Development (DX4D): Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda (open access) by Richard Heeks, Bookie Ezeomah, Gianluca Iazzolino, Aarti Krishnan, Rose Pritchard, Jaco Renken & Qingna Zhou, reviews DX4D literature and proposes 13 principles that can be used as a starting point to guide a better understanding and operationalisation of digital-transformation-for-development research and consulting.
DATA-FOR-DEVELOPMENT
Extracting Reproductive Condition and Habitat Information from Text Using a Transformer-based Information Extraction Pipeline by Roselyn Gabud, Nelson Pampolina, Vladimir Mariano & Riza Batista-Navarro, proposes a natural language processing pipeline for analysing the forestry compendium of the Centre for Agricultural and Biosciences International Digital Library. Information extracted by the pipeline can enrich information in biodiversity databases.
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