my research on Ict and development
I have long been interested in the ways that information and communication technologies (ICTs) impact economic development in some of the world's global economic margins.
At the moment, I'm putting together a book (with MIT Press) titled 'Digital Economies at Global Margins' that aims to bring together current and critical scholarship from over a dozen authors on this topic.
At Oxford, I teach a course called 'Economic Development in the Digital Age' that focuses on the winners and losers in the contexts of rapidly changing global connectivity. I also host a yearly lecture series on the topic. If you aren't in Oxford, you can see a list of the webcasts we've assembled here. I also lead two research clusters at the Oxford Internet Institute that focus on the topic: Connectivity, Inclusion, and Inequality; and Big Data and Development.
My current research in this area focuses largely on digital labour and digital knowledge economies, and what they mean for workers in low-income contexts. My previous research in this area looked at what rapidly changing connectivity in East Africa meant for three sectors of the economy (tea, tourism, and outsourcing), and how changing connectivity impacted value chains, cultural practices, and discourses in the traditional Thai silk industry. I also recently co-authored a methods book called Research and Fieldwork in Development.
current collaborators
Sanna Ojanperä, Amir Anwar, Michel Wahome
SAMPLE publications IN THIS AREA
Anwar, M. A., and Graham, M. 2022. The Digital Continent: Placing Africa in Planetary Networks of Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Graham, M. and Ferrari, F. (eds) 2022. Digital Work in the Planetary Market. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Heeks, R., Gomez-Morantes, J. E., Graham, M., Howson, K., Mungai, P., Nicholson, B., Van Belle, J-P. 2021. Digital platforms and institutional voids in developing countries: The case of ride-hailing markets. World Development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105528
Friederici, N., Wahome, M., and Graham, M. 2020. Digital Entrepreneurship in Africa How a Continent Is Escaping Silicon Valley's Long Shadow. Cambridge MA: MIT Press
Wahome, M., and Graham, M. 2020. Spatially shaped imaginaries of the digital economy. Information, Communication & Society. 23:8, 1123-1138, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1701696
Anwar, M. A. and Graham, M. 2020. Digital Labour at Economic Margins: African Workers and the Global Information Economy, Review of African Political Economy.
Graham, M. (ed). 2019. Digital Economies at Global Margins. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Anwar, M. A., and Graham, M. 2019. Does economic upgrading lead to social upgrading in contact centers? Evidence from South Africa. African Geographical Review. DOI: 10.1080/19376812.2019.1589730
Ojanperä, S., Graham, M., and Zook, M. 2019. The Digital Knowledge Economy Index: Mapping Content Production. The Journal of Development Studies. DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2018.1554208.
Graham, M. 2019. Changing Connectivity and Digital Economies at Global Margins. In Graham, M. (ed) 2019 Digital Economies at Global Margins. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. 1-18.
Foster, C., Graham, M., and Waema, T. M. 2019. Making Sense of Digital Disintermediation and Development: The Case of the Mombasa Tea Auction. In Graham, M. (ed) 2019 Digital Economies at Global Margins. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. 55-78.
Graham, M. and Woodcock, J. 2018. Towards a Fairer Platform Economy: Introducing the Fairwork Foundation. Alternate Routes. 29. 242-253.
Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, A., and Hjorth, I. 2018. Good Gig, Bad Big: Autonomy and Algorithmic Control in the Global Gig Economy. Work, Employment and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017018785616
Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, L., Wood., A., Barnard, H., and Hjorth, I. 2018. Could Online Gig Work Drive Development in Lower-income Countries? In Galperin, H., and Alarcon, A. The Future of Work in the Global South. Ottawa: IDRC. 8-11.
Foster, C., Graham, M., Mann, L., Waema, T., and Friederici, N. 2017. Digital Control in Value Chains: Challenges of Connectivity for East African Firms. Economic Geography. 94(1) 68-86.
Graham, M., Ojanpera, S., Anwar, M. A., and Friederici, N. 2017. Digital Connectivity and African Knowledge Economies. Questions de Communication. 32. 345-360.
Graham, M., Hjorth, I., Lehdonvirta, V. 2017. Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research. 23 (2) 135-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258916687250.
Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Wood, A., Barnard, H., Hjorth, I., and Simon, D. P. 2017. The Risks and Rewards of Online Gig Work At the Global Margins. Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute.
Friederici, N. Ojanperä, S., and Graham, M. 2017. The Impact of Connectivity in Africa: Grand Visions and the Mirage of Inclusive Digital Development. Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. 79(2) 1-20.
Ojanperrä, A., Graham, M., Straumann, R., De Sabbata, S., and Zook, M. 2017. Engagement in the Knowledge Economy: Regional Patterns of Content Creation with a Focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Information Technologies and International Development. 13. 33-51.
Foster, C. and Graham, M. 2016. Reconsidering the Role of the Digital in Global Production Networks. Global Networks. DOI: 10.1111/glob.12142.
Smart, C., Donner, J., and Graham, M. 2016. Connecting the World from the Sky: Spatial Discourses Around Internet Access in the Developing World. Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2909609.2909659
Mann, L and Graham, M. 2016 The Domestic Turn: Business Process Outsourcing and the Growing Automation of Kenyan Organisations. Journal of Development Studies 52:4, 530-548, DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2015.1126251. (pre-publication version here)
Graham, M. 2015. Contradictory Connectivity: Spatial Imaginaries and Techno-Mediated Positionalities in Kenya's Outsourcing Sector. Environment and Planning A 47 867-883 (pre-publicaion version here).
Graham, M., Andersen, C., and Mann, L. 2015 Geographical Imagination and Technological Connectivity in East Africa. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 40(3) 334-349. (pre-publication version here).
Graham, M. and L. Mann. 2013. Imagining a Silicon Savannah? Technological and Conceptual Connectivity in Kenya's BPO and Software Development Sectors. Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. 56(2). 1-19.
Graham, M. 2013. Thai Silk dot Com: Authenticity, Altruism, Modernity and Markets in the Thai Silk Industry. Globalisations 10(2) 211-230.
Graham, M. 2011. “Perish or Globalize:” Network Integration and the Reproduction and Replacement of Weaving Traditions in the Thai Silk Industry ACME: Journal of Critical Geographies10(3) 458-482.
Graham, M. and H. Haarstad. 2011. Transparency and Development: Ethical Consumption through Web 2.0 and the Internet of Things. Information Technologies and International Development. 7(1). 1-18.
Graham, M. 2011. Disintermediation, Altered Chains and Altered Geographies: The Internet in the Thai Silk Industry. Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. 45(5), 1-25
Graham, M. 2010. Justifying Virtual Presence in the Thai Silk Industry: Links Between Data and Discourse. Information Technologies and International Development. 6(4), 57-70.