{"id":84287,"date":"2022-04-08T10:15:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T08:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiig.de\/?p=84287"},"modified":"2025-10-09T12:50:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T10:50:06","slug":"research-sprint-sustainable-digital-economies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiig.de\/en\/research-sprint-sustainable-digital-economies\/","title":{"rendered":"Research sprint: “Sustainable digital economies”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A unique opportunity to shape the platform economy of tomorrow and to join a scientific community<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital platforms have become the defining ecosystems for economic activity in the 21st century. On two-sided markets, they mediate between buyers and sellers of digital work or enable novel business for digital entrepreneurs. At the same time, they amplify existing polarisation of skills and economic resources and call for new regulatory measures in an increasingly uneven digital economy. Both the perks and perils of the digital platform economy are distinctly visible in regions on the economic development pathway, like many economies in sub-Saharan Africa. How can platform work in sub-Saharan Africa be shaped sustainably? What role does fairness play in regulation and the exchange between different interest groups? These are just some of the many pressing questions related to platform economy and regulation, which we will address in an interdisciplinary research sprint with exciting structures for policy impact (both public and private).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our project Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Global Digital Transformation<\/em> (SET)<\/a>, we are now inviting applications from interested researchers with diverse academic backgrounds (economics, law, political science and related fields) to join a <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Sprint on \u201cSustainable Digital Economies\u201d <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

taking place from 30 May 2022 to 15 July 2022 <\/strong>virtually, with a closing week onsite in Ghana. Main partners of the project are the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), the Gesellschaft f\u00fcr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Digital Transformation Centre Ghana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the research sprint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The research sprint will address two central aspects and levels of the digital platform economy: skill polarisation in a future of remote work and local regulation of platform work. The findings and results of the research sprint will be integrated into local activities of the Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Global Digital Transformation<\/em> (SET)<\/a> project in Ghana and Kenya such as a multi-stakeholder dialogue, a large-scale study on skill polarisation in online labour markets and a study on regulation of digital platforms in sub-Saharan Africa. The research sprint will be conducted with two working groups, each of which will focus on one of the two central topics. One of the teams will look into data sets about online labour markets in Ghana and Kenya and will support this data with qualitative research on the workers\u2019 perspective. A second team will conduct a policy and literature review on existing research about different regulatory approaches to platform work in sub-Saharan Africa with a local focus on Kenya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the innovative format of a research sprint we want to enable applied research on current societal challenges in the setting of the sub-Saharan digital platform economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goals of the research sprint  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n