Tag Archives: Digital economy

1st INDL-Middle East and Africa conference

I am proud to announce that our group International Network on Digital Labor (INDL), together with the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at The American University in Cairo’s School of Business, is organising the inaugural conference of the Middle East and Africa (MEA) chapter of INDL titled ‘Digital Labor Perspectives from the Middle East and Africa.’ Organized in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), Digital Platform Labor (DiPLab), Weizenbaum Institute and Université française d’Egypte, this conference will be held on May 28, 2024, in Cairo, Egypt.

Rationale

Digital labor is at the heart of our evolving economies. To address the specific challenges and developments in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), we are launching a dedicated chapter of INDL for the region.

This conference provides a unique platform to present research related to the MEA region, both ongoing and/or burgeoning. The conference offers opportunities for scholars and practitioners to engage with topics such as platformization, automation, gig economy dynamics, and technology-mediated labor.

INDL-MEA will feature three tracks: one in Arabic, one in English, and one in French, reflecting the linguistic diversity of the region.

Topics

Submissions must be in reference to the MEA region, for instance: in perspective, case studies, or focus.

Submission topics may include but are not limited to

  • Case studies examining platforms, gig economy workers, and online digital labor in MEA
  • Exploring algorithmic management practices in work processes, recruiting, and HR in MEA
  • Issues of digital platform labor on gender and inclusion in the MEA region
  • Consequences of the shift to digital labor on workers, businesses, economies, and labor markets in MEA
  • Effects of remote work and digital labor on employee well-being and productivity in MEA
  • Policy responses to the rise of digital labor and automation in MEA, including regulatory measures and government intervention
  • Strategies for organizing digital workers and managing geographically distributed workforces in MEA
  • Intersectional perspectives on digital labor in MEA
  • Exploring AI and digital labor through a decolonial lens in MEA
  • Challenges posed by Generative AI to human labor in MEA

Submissions

We invite submissions of anonymized abstracts for papers, case studies, and policy briefs related to these topics. Abstracts, up to 500 words, can be submitted in Arabic, English, or French through our website INDL-MEA.

Important Dates

  • Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2024
  • Acceptance notification: February 15, 2024
  • Registration opens: TBA
  • INDL-MEA conference date: May 28, 2024

Together, let’s foster a thought-provoking dialogue and contribute to shaping the future of digital labor in the Middle East and Africa.

For more information, please see the INDL website.

To submit an abstract, click here.

Hierarchy, market or network? The disruptive world of the digital platform

Economics traditionally considered firms and markets as two alternative ways of coordinating economic activities. Nobel prize winner Ronald H. Coase (1937) demonstrated that it all hinges on “transaction costs”, such as the need to search for a trade partner, the time needed to negotiate a contract, the legal expenses to draw it up and if necessary, to enforce it. When these costs are high, then hiring people in a firm is the right solution. When they are low, then a harmonious state will emerge spontaneously from the choices of independent, self-employed individuals. The difference, further emphasized by the work of Oliver Williamson, another Nobel, is between the world of bureaucracy, hierarchy and salaried work, and the world of the market and myriad micro-entrepreneurs.

This dichotomous description seemed reductive to economic sociologists, and Mark Granovetter (1985) pointed to social networks as coordination devices. Networks enable circulation of knowledge, formation of trust, emergence of shared norms in informal ways, thereby lowering costs and smoothing economic transactions. Walter W. Powell (1990) saw networks as an alternative to market and hierarchy, while others thought of it as a complement rather than a substitute. In some cases, the relevance of networks is flagrant: think of “collegial“, horizontal organizations such as legal partnerships, which are clearly not markets, and which have no vertical hierarchy either.

HierarchyMktNetwork

The rise of online platforms challenges these older views today. Powered by digital data and matching algorithms, platforms are meeting places for actors on the two sides of a market: riders and drivers (Uber, Lyft, BlaBlaCar), guests and hosts (Airbnb), buyers and sellers (eBay), and so on. Officially, platforms are intermediaries only, able to put in touch, say, those who need a lift and those who have a car, so that they can share the ride. Platforms don’t employ drivers and don’t own cars.

Platform

Continue reading “Hierarchy, market or network? The disruptive world of the digital platform”