[Air-L] CFP: Panel on illegitimate and informal digital economies (Barcelona, July 23-26)

[Andreas Hackl]

Dear colleagues,

The role of the "illegitimate" and informal in digital economies is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of digitalisation. If you are working in this field, please consider joining this exciting in-person panel at the EASA conference in Barcelona this July (deadline 22 January):

Illegitimacy and informality in the digital economy<https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easa2024/p/14503>

In-person panel at EASA2024 conference in Barcelona, 23-26 July

Anthropological research has long been attuned to the subversive ways in which people maintain their livelihoods, and has thereby contested binary divisions between the formal and informal in economies and labour markets. These binaries are upheld by state-centric perspectives on legitimate economic activity; challenging them means questioning norms and stereotypes around legality, criminalisation, and authority. Digitalisation has beckoned many new ways of generating income, accessing work, and getting paid, for example through platform work, e-commerce, mobile money, cryptocurrency exchanges, or social media platforms. Here, new informal and illegitimate activities have flourished. New forms of digital brokerage and informal intermediation, online scams, and fraudulent digital identities are especially prevalent among low income, migrant, and non-citizen groups who are excluded from bank accounts, SIMs, and other foundations of digital economic activity (Chonka 2023; Cheesman & Hackl 2023; Swartz 2023).

Building on these emerging conversations, this panel seeks to generate critical discussion around the role of the illegitimate and informal in contemporary digital economies, including digital labour markets, finance, aid and welfare, cybercrime, and more. We are interested in both the empowering and disempowering dimensions of the illegitimate and informal. Papers may include discussions of subject formation in digital economies, everyday negotiations or regimes of suspicion and authenticity. We invite papers based on research not only with vulnerable, exploited populations, but also elite actors, such as those involved in shadow banking or regulatory arbitrage. The panel encourages methodological reflections about the challenges of doing anthropological research in this ambivalent and sensitive field.

If you are interested to join, please submit your paper proposal here:

https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easa2024/p/14503

If you have any questions, please contact the conveners (Andreas Hackl, University of Edinburgh, and Margie Cheesman, King's College London):
andreas.hackl at ed.ac.uk
margie.cheesman at kcl.ac.uk


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Dr Andreas Hackl
Lecturer, Social Anthropology
School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh, UK


The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th' ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann, clàraichte an Alba, àireamh clàraidh SC005336.