Digital self-determination/Participation and Self-Determination in the Digital Economy

While previous modules have focused on conceptual and horizontal issues, this module kicks-off a series of vertical explorations into different application areas of digital self- determination by examining what it means to be able to participate in the digital economy. The module highlights insights from youth and media research on creative expression and different forms of “capital”, and also addresses the relationship between digital citizenship skills and economic opportunity.

Learning Materials

Pre-session Materials

• Fairwork Podcast Series (FairWork), Introduction (“Introducing the Fairwork Podcast”) and the second episode (“002: Conditions”)
• Digital Economy Report (World Employment and Social Outlook: The Role of Digital Labor Platforms in Transforming the World of Work), sub-chapters 1.2 and 1.3 and chapter 6 (ILO)

Video Sparks

These videos are not meant to comprehensively cover the topics. Instead, these videos are meant to spark a conversation about the ideas contained within. They often contain questions or different lenses from which to explore the week's topic. Viewers should look to the videos for ideas and from there, explore possible on their own, relevant research, videos, government documents, reports, etc that can further enhance their understanding.

Speaker	Tiago Peixoto	Angelica Balanta	Alessio Bertolini
Video
Video Summary	Tiago Peixoto explains why it is crucial to examine public procurement —the government’s purchases of goods, services, and works— to evaluate the extent to which government’s good intentions translate into actions, whether they reflect collective self-determination, and how they can innovate and promote a more fair and inclusive digital economy.	Angelica Balanta describes her path to recover an untold part of Colombian history, namely the often-overlooked past of African enslavement and colonization. Miss Balanta - her digital entrepreneur alter ego -  uses the traditional turban and her blog as tools for resistance and reappropriation of African roots.	Alessio Bertolini summarizes the mainstream narrative that online platforms of the ‘gig economy’ use to promote their supposedly autonomous, flexible, and easy working conditions for “partners” and how The Fairwork Project scores such conditions and lobbies for better ones.

Learning Artifacts

For this module's activity, learners were encouraged choose among the following options: 1.) create a global, regional or national map of the Digital Economy, 2.) record a podcast episode about the Digital Economy, 3.) write a one-page case study of a gig or sharing economy platform/company that operates in their country, or 4.) make a video tutorial on a topic or hobby that they are passionate about and reflect on the digital skills they used in making it. Below are samples of learners' artifacts.

Artifact	Author	Description
	Carmen Ng	This podcast episode explores how a 60-year-old bookbinding and letter printing studio in Kyoto has found a way to leverage the digital economy for immersive experiences.
	Rory Torres	This podcast features co-owners and co-chefs of Kitchen 402, a newly created cooking and delivering service for homemade gourmet Filipino food, born during the height of the pandemic. It explores the role of digital technology, including the gig economy, the pandemic, and entrepreneurship have helped this business thrive in the past year.
	Constanza M. Vidal Bustamante	Case study on Chilean-created grocery delivery app Cornerstore
	Narayanamoorthy Nanditha	This piece explores the gig sharing economy in India with a focus on the rideshare company, Ola, its services, business model, worker participation, and the impact of the gig work on workers.
	Jean-Baptiste Scherrer	Digitalization of an actor
	Areej Mawasi	In this artifact I interviewed a Palestinian digital artist, called Ameer Basheer who described how he used digital media as an artist.
	Unnamed Participant	A case study on ZenJob
	Maria Francesca De Tullio	An interview with Ana Sofia Acosta Alvarado on digital economy and the project TAPAS (There Are Platforms as Alternatives)
	İdil Kula	This artifact is a case study on the business practice of a platform, Getir.
	Hillary McLauchlin	This artifact, a case study of the grocery shopping platform Instacart, investigates the app's business model, reliance on gig workers, and actions taken by the platform's shoppers to make their voices heard in the digital food delivery economy. This artifact contrasts the language used to advertise Instacart with the reality of its impact on workers.
	Eraldo	This one-page case study discusses OnlyFans' role in the Brazilian gig economy. It shows that although OnlyFans makes self-determination possible for many content creators, especially for sex workers, it also creates new forms of dependence and precariousness in the lives of many of them.
	Temitayo Olofinlua	An exploration of the book market in Nigeria and digitalization.

Activity

For this module, learners were given to option to choose an activity from among the following:

• Map the Digital Economy. Create a world, regional or national board map showcasing the main influencers, content creators, search terms: what is the preferred outlet in your country? Use a Miro board (or other visual board) to map your ideas and include links to webpages. View an example: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lMqV2W4=/.

• Create and produce a short (5 minutes or so) podcast episode on the Digital Economy. Choose an issue you find interesting, tell a story or interview someone (a gig worker, a digital artist, etc.). For such instances, it will be important to explain and clarify the context of what this podcast is for and acquire permissions to share (that is, please keep privacy in mind).

• Explore the gig/sharing economy in your country. Choose a gig or sharing economy platform/company that operates in your country. Write a one-page case study: What service does it offer? What is its model? Are workers employers or independent contractors? How do workers participate? Have you noticed any impacts for traditional workers in the space?

• Make a video tutorial of a topic, hobby you are passionate about (cooking, book review, music instrument, etc.). Write a short reflection (1 or 2 paragraphs) identifying the digital skills required to produce such content. Discuss how the lines between the personal, the economic, and the digital may be blurred.

Learners are encouraged to look for region-specific platforms or localized and distinct use of digital tools to establish, maintain, expand a particular digital economy or economic practices.

If you are exploring this course on your own, we encourage you to create artifacts to share on Twitter or other social media platforms using the following hashtag: #DigitalSelfDetermination

Speaker Bios

Miss Balanta

Miss Balanta is the online alter-ego of Angelica Balanta, Colombian graphic and fashion designer, blogger, influencer, photographer, agent and model. Miss Balanta project was born spontaneously in 2013: Growing up seeing Afro-Colombian women wear turbans and head pieces inspired Angelica to launch a fashion blog and make video tutorials on how to wear and style Afro Colombian culture headpieces. Her videos have been watched over 170.000 times on YouTube and her IG account has over 60.000 followers. Miss Balanta is fueled by Angelica's curiosity to learn more about her Afro roots and transform items of Black culture into fashionable works of art. With her online presence and original designs Miss Balanta seeks to empower women, educate, and highlight the values of Afro culture.

Alessio Bertolini

Alessio Bertolini is a Researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute for the project FairWork, where he is investigating platform work in the UK and Germany. Before joining the OII, Alessio was a postdoctoral researcher of the project ‘Work Demand: Contracting for Work in a Changing Economy’ (https://workondemand.co.uk/) headed by Prof. Ruth Dukes at the University of Glasgow. Within the broader project, Alessio had been investigating ideas and strategies used by different stakeholders and policy actors in the regulation of the platform economy in a comparative perspective. Before joining the Work on Demand team, Alessio completed his PhD in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh on the topic of comparative labour market regulations for non-standard workers in Italy and the UK. With a background in economics and policy studies, his area of expertise involves employment and welfare rights for non-standard workers from a comparative European perspective. More broadly, his research and teaching interests include labour markets and social security policies and regulations. Both before and during his PhD, he was involved in several national and international research projects on the topic of labour market and welfare policies.

Tiago Peixoto

Tiago is a Senior Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice. Having joined the Bank in 2010, Tiago’s activities focus on working with governments to develop solutions for better public policies and services. Prior to joining the World Bank, Tiago has managed projects and consulted for a number of organizations, such as the European Commission, OECD, United Nations, Bertelsmann Foundation, and the Brazilian and UK governments. Formerly a research coordinator for the Electronic Democracy Centre at the University of Zurich, Tiago is currently a faculty member of New York University’s Governance Lab. A board member for Our Cities Network and Intelligent Digital Avatars, he also sits in the advisory boards of a number of organizations such as The Participatory Budgeting Project and Our City Thoughts. Featured in TechCrunch as one of the “20 Most Innovative People in Democracy”, Tiago holds a PhD and a Masters in Political Science from the European University Institute, as well as a Masters in Organized Collective Action from Sciences-Po Paris. He blogs at DemocracySpot and tweets at @participatory.