Digital economies at global margins

390 Pages·2019·11.104 MB·English

by  Mark Graham (editor)

Digital Economies at Global Margins

Digital Economies at Global Margins
edited by Mark Graham
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
International Development Research Centre
Ottawa • Amman • Montevideo • Nairobi • New Delhi
© 2019 Contributors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0) Inter-
national License.

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The research presented in this publication was carried out with the financial assis-
tance of Canada’s International Development Research Centre. The views expressed
herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC or its Board of Governors.
ISBN 978-1-55250-600-4 (IDRC e-book)
This book was set in ITC Stone Sans Std and ITC Stone Serif Std by Toppan Best-set
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Graham, Mark, 1980- editor.
Title: Digital economies at global margins / edited by Mark Graham.
Description: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018010198 | ISBN 9780262535892 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Small business--Technological innovations. | Electronic commerce.
| Marginality, Social. | Social marketing.
Classification: LCC HD2341 .D54 2018 | DDC 384.309172/4--dc23 LC record
available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010198
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Changing Connectivity and Digital Economies at Global
Margins 1
Mark Graham
Opening Essays 19
Marginal Benefits at the Global Margins: The Unfulfilled Potential
of Digital Technologies 21
Uwe Deichmann and Deepak Mishra
Toward the Transformative Power of Universal Connectivity 25
Bitange Ndemo
A Data-Driven Approach to Closing the Internet Inclusion
Gap 29
Robert Pepper and Molly Jackman
Digital Services and Industrial Inclusion: Growing Africa’s
Technological Complexity 33
Calestous Juma
Platforms at the Margins 39
Jonathan Donner and Chris Locke
Digital Economies at Global Margins: A Warning from the Dark
Side 43
Tim Unwin
Digital Globality and Economic Margins—Unpacking Myths,
Recovering Materialities 47
Anita Gurumurthy
vi Contents
I Digitalization at Global Margins 53
2 Making Sense of Digital Disintermediation and Development:
The Case of the Mombasa Tea Auction 55
Christopher Foster, Mark Graham, and Timothy Mwolo Waema
3 Development or Divide? Information and Communication
Technologies in Commercial Small-Scale Farming in East
Africa 79
Madlen Krone and Peter Dannenberg
4 Digital Inclusion, Female Entrepreneurship, and the Production of
Neoliberal Subjects—Views from Chile and Tanzania 103
Hannah McCarrick and Dorothea Kleine
5 “Let the Private Sector Take Care of This”: The Philanthro-
Capitalism of Digital Humanitarianism 129
Ryan Burns
6 The Digitalization of Anti-poverty Programs: Aadhaar and the
Reform of Social Protection in India 153
Silvia Masiero
7 The Myth of Market Price Information: Mobile Phones and the
Application of Economic Knowledge in ICTD 173
Jenna Burrell and Elisa Oreglia
II Digital Production at Global Margins 191
8 Hope and Hype in Africa’s Digital Economy: The Rise of Innovation
Hubs 193
Nicolas Friederici
9 Hackathons and the Cultivation of Platform Dependence 223
Lilly Irani
10 Meeting Social Objectives with Offshore Service Work: Evaluating
Impact Sourcing in the Philippines 249
Jorien Oprins and Niels Beerepoot
11 Digital Labor and Development: Impacts of Global Digital Labor
Platforms and the Gig Economy on Worker Livelihoods 269
Mark Graham, Isis Hjorth, and Vili Lehdonvirta
Contents vii
12 Geographic Discrimination in the Gig Economy 295
Hernan Galperin and Catrihel Greppi
13 Margins at the Center: Alternative Digital Economies in Shenzhen,
China 319
Jack Linchuan Qiu and Julie Yujie Chen
14 African Economies: Simply Connect? Problematizing the Discourse
on Connectivity in Logistics and Communication 341
Stefan Ouma, Julian Stenmanns, and Julia Verne
Author Affiliations 365
Index 367

Acknowledgments
A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
© Massachusetts Institute of Technology All Rights Reserved
This book was only brought into being with the support, guidance, and
contributions of many friends and colleagues. I wish to thank, first of all,
the book’s authors, all of whom put together their contributions with great
effort, care, and thoughtfulness, cooperatively and patiently revising their
chapters.
This volume was born of conference sessions at the 2015 meeting of the
American Association of Geographers and the 2015 Global Conference on
Economic Geography. These sessions, and the initial ideas for this book,
were put together in collaboration with my colleagues Nicolas Friederici,
Heather Ford, Chris Foster, and Isis Hjorth. I am very grateful for the energy
and creative guidance they each provided.
The set of concerns that guide this book also find a supportive home
among two overlapping groups of scholars at the Oxford Internet Insti-
tute: the “Geonet” and “Digital Inequality” research clusters. I wish to
thank Mohammed Amir Anwar, Grant Blank, Margie Cheesman, Stefano
De Sabbata, Martin Dittus, Nicolas Friederici, Fabian Braesemann, Iginio
Gagliardone, Khairunnisa Haji Ibrahim, Sanna Ojanperä, Joe Shaw, David
Souter, Ralph Straumann, Michel Wahome, Jamie Woodcock, and Alex
Wood for helping to build such an inspiring community focused on digital
inequalities.
I also wish to thank David Sutcliffe for his ever-attentive role as an editor.
Sanna Ojanperä and Mohammed Amir Anwar also provided critical reviews
on individual chapters. The book is much improved as a result of their help.
At all stages of putting the book together, I also relied heavily on the
constant encouragement, support, and guidance offered by Kat Braybrooke.
Her ability to act as a sounding board, creatively think through ideas, and
offer constructive guidance has been invaluable. Thank you Kat.