With widespread informal work and growing access to global technology platforms, a large number of workers in the Global South are already experiencing the impact of automation and digitally-enabled work. This Lunch Briefing will focus on what we may learn about changing conceptions of work, including app-based and software-mediated labour. With the prospect of a jobless future, labour trends and emergent forms of digital work in the Global South should inform debates on the impact of automation and policy responses on the future of work across the world—from Uber operations across Africa, to freelance tech work in India, or even blockchain technology in mineral economies.

Filipe Calvão is a socio-cultural anthropologist and an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute. Calvão holds a PhD from the University of Chicago and his research examines extractive economies and corporate governance in postcolonial Africa, the qualities and technologies of transparency in the global gemstone industry and the social impact of technological transformations in digital economies.