By Tracy Burrows, South Africa
The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is carrying out a research project in an effort to better understand the digital economy and the societal implications of network technologies in sub-Saharan Africa.
In research that began late last year, OII’s GEONET project: studying ‘Changing Connectivities and the Potentials of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Knowledge Economy’ will, over the next five years, seek to understand the difference that improved connectivity is having on Sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging information economies.
The research, funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, will focus on economic geographies of knowledge-production and digital participation from Sub-Saharan Africa, outsourcing, and ‘bottom-of-the-pyramid’ labour: focusing on microwork and call/contact centres and projects and specialist and high-end services being nurtured in Sub-Saharan Africa’s innovation hubs, looking at how and where they are taking root, and whether they play an important role in the development of the region’s knowledge economies.
As part of its work, the OII hosted several panels in South Africa, with SA-based microjobbing service M4JAM recruiting some of its most regular jobbers in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and offering them an incentive for taking part. The panels focused on digital jobs, online freelancing and microwork.
In addition, the research team will interview M4JAM Co-Founder and Chief Jammer, Andre Hugo for his take on the digital economy and the changing face of work in South Africa.
Hugo, said: “There is no doubt that the way we define work has changed significantly over the last decade. The boundaries between personal and working lives are increasingly blurred and people no longer stay in one job for their whole career or are required to sit behind a desk from 9 to 5.” He continues, “M4JAM is disrupting the playing field by offering jobbers a means of earning extra money as they go about their daily routine, capitalising on both the ideas of the digital and collaborative economy. We are very excited that our voice is being heard as part of the Oxford Internet Institute’s study because I believe the insights gained will shape the future of our platform and the market.”
A researcher at the OII, Isis Hjorth, explained that the study is focusing on digital jobs, online freelancing and microwork in Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. “We are trying to understand the landscape of online work and quantify the potential of the economic growth resulting from this type of work, as well as who is benefitting from digital jobs and how,” she said. “In addition to global platforms, we have also been trying to identify African initiatives, and we were interested to hear about M4JAM, which is unique in being a mobile-based platform in a developing market.”
Following the jobber panel discussions, Hjorth noted: “It’s interesting to hear the jobbers talk about the different kinds of jobs and how they fit these into their existing lives. Jobbers enjoy that they can choose jobs that require different levels of interaction with others. The most committed jobbers spend time planning their jobs each day and go so far as to plot the jobs on Google Maps and follow the routes to optimise their time, petrol and data.” Jobbers who work in this way manage to cash out about R1000 per week, although there are variations in conceptualisations of the role of M4JAM in different jobbers’ financial situations, with some seeing it as more integral to income generation and others viewing it as more of a leisurely activity.
This links to the question of whether digital jobs can give people the opportunity to change their lifestyles and change the status quo should ends not meet. “There are some challenges around digital literacy, awareness and access that must still be addressed before we see significant growth in this space,” said Hjorth.
