How an anthropologist approaches economics and digital finance

Old Remittance Networks and New Digital Assets: Perspectives from Africa

Remittances are traditionally viewed as transfers from the Global North to the Global South.  Development economists have therefore studied remittances in terms of their impact on local consumption and investment in receiving countries. Today, the vast majority of remittances transfer via digital platforms. Development economists now view remittances and digital platforms as vectors of financial inclusion. To what extent is this view warranted?  Evidence indicates that the benefits of digital payments infrastructure lie elsewhere.  This presentation illustrates how financial value is generated by a nexus of mobile telecommunications operators, mobile money issuers, and commercial banks with reference to Sub-Saharan Africa.

About the Speaker

Janet Roitman is Professor at RMIT University. She is founder-director of The Platform Economies Research Network (PERN) and Associate Member of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-making and Society (ADM+S).  Her current research focuses on digital technologies and emergent forms of value.  She is the author of Fiscal Disobedience: An Anthropology of Economic Regulation in Central Africa (Princeton University Press) and Anti-Crisis (Duke University Press). She sits on the editorial boards of The Journal of Cultural Economy, Cultural Anthropology, Finance & Society, and Platforms & Society. Prior to joining RMIT, she was a University Professor at The New School, New York and an instructor at Sciences-po, Paris. Her research has received support from the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Institute for Public Knowledge, and US The National Science Foundation. 

Event Details

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