Business School Research Seminar (Management) - Professor Vili Lehdonvirta (University of Oxford)
Professor Vili Lehdonvirta (University of Oxford)
In Person and Online
Cloud Empires: How digital platforms are overtaking the state and how we can regain control
Research Area: Management: Work Futures
Vili will be discussing his new book which just had an excellent entire BBC Radio 4 programme The Digital Human dedicated to discussing it https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001cxfy
Abstract: The early Internet was a lawless place, populated by scam artists who made buying or selling anything online risky business. Then Amazon, eBay, Upwork, and Apple established secure digital platforms for selling physical goods, crowdsourcing labor, and downloading apps. These tech giants have gone on to rule the Internet like autocrats. How did this happen? How did workers and small businesses become the hapless subjects of online economic empires? The Internet was supposed to liberate us from gatekeepers, but instead it produced some of the most powerful gatekeepers in history. In this talk, I draw on my new book Cloud Empires to examine how we got here and how users are fighting back to democratize the digital economy.
About Vili: Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. His research into digital markets, online gig work, and artificial intelligence has been supported by the European Research Council, the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and other science funding agencies. He has served on the European Commission’s Expert Group on the Online Platform Economy and the High-Level Expert Group on Digital Transformation and EU Labour Markets. Lehdonvirta was born in Finland and worked as a software developer before embarking on a career in social science.
Praise for Cloud Empires:
“If you are interested in the future that the tech sector is constructing for us, you must read this brilliant and utterly absorbing book. Crucial for understanding today's debates about the role of the tech platforms.”
Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College
“An essential book that demonstrates how online platform markets operate in practice and asks how challengers to state power might be held to account.”
Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge
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