The hope and hype about African digital entrepreneurship, contrasted with the reality on the ground in local ecosystems. In recent years, Africa has seen a digital entrepreneurship boom, with hundreds of millions of dollars poured into tech cities, entrepreneurship trainings, coworking spaces,...

Introduction / Mark Graham and Fabian Ferrari -- Moving beyond Shanzhai? Contradictions of platformized family production in the planetary network of e-commerce labor / Lin Zhang -- How do workers survive and thrive in the platform economy? Evidence from China and Philippines / Julie Chen and...

Hopes and Potentials -- Taking Stock -- Bounded Opportunities -- Viable Strategies -- Uneven Ecosystems -- Transitioning Identities -- Silicon Tensions -- Ways Forward -- Appendix A: Methodology -- Appendix B: Case Study Notes and Market Data.

"How is society being shaped by the diffusion and increasing centrality of the Internet in everyday life and work? By bringing together leading research that addresses some of the most significant cultural, economic, and political roles of the Internet, this volume introduces students to a core...