Laura Mann Download: CV summer 2024
Department of International Development,
Connaught House, 7.10
London, WC2A 2AE
Academic Employment
Associate Professor Aug 2023 to Current
Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science
Assistant Professor Sep 2015 to Jul 2023
Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science
Postdoctoral Researcher Feb 2014 to Aug 2015
African Studies Centre, Leiden University
Postdoctoral Researcher Oct 2011 to Dec 2013
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Education
Doctor of Philosophy Sep 2007 to Jun 2012
PhD Title: Retreat of the State and the Market: Liberalization and Education Expansion in Sudan under the National Congress Party.
Centre for African Studies, University of Edinburgh
Supervisors: Professor Sara Rich Dorman and Professor Donald MacKenzie
Masters By Research Sep 2006 to Jun 2007
Distinction
Centre for African Studies, University of Edinburgh
BSc in Environmental Policy (Major) with Economics (Minor) Sep 2001 to Aug 2004
First Class Honours
Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science
Teaching Experience
Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science
· African Development, Masters Course, 2015/6- 2023/4
· Development Studies Core Course, 2019/20- 2023/4
· African Political Economy, Masters Course, 2015/6
· Development Consultancy Supervision, 2021/2022
· Masters Dissertation Supervision, 2015/6-2023/4 (approximately 15 students per year)
Zhejiang University, China
· Summer school on digital development and artificial intelligence, July, 2024.
IT for Change, Mumbai, India
· Online course on feminist approaches to digital economy, October 2021.
Rift Valley Institute, Course held in Kampala, Uganda
· Sudan Programme, General Course for Policy-makers, Diplomats and Professionals, Summer, 2016.
African Studies Centre, Leiden University
· Core African Studies Course, Masters Course, 2014/5.
· Masters Dissertation Supervision (2 students), 2014/5.
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
· Core Methods, Masters Course, 2012.
· Advanced Qualitative Research Methods, Masters Course, 2012.
· Masters Dissertation Supervision (1 student), 2012/3.
Department of Politics, University of Edinburgh
· Africa in World Politics, Bachelors Course, 2011 (as a TA and Guest Lecturer).
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Ali, M. and L Mann (2023) ‘Misaligned Social Policy? Explaining the Origins and Limitations of Cash Transfers in Sudan’. Development and Change 54(4): 841- 869.
Mukiri-Smith, H., Mann, L. and S. Azmeh (2022) ‘A DC State of Mind?: A Review of the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives’ Development and Change 53(6): 1421-1439.
Mann, L. and G. Iazzolino (2021) “From Development State to Corporate Leviathan: Historicizing the Infrastructural Performativity of Digital Platforms within Kenyan Agriculture” Development and Change, 52(4): 829-854.
Kleibert, J. and L. Mann (2020) “Capturing Value Amidst Global Restructuring: Economic Development and Information and Technology Enabled Services in India, the Philippines and Kenya” European Journal of Development Research 32: 1057-1079.
Beresford, A., Berry, M., and L. Mann (2018) “Liberation Movements and Stalled Democratic Transitions: Reproducing Power in Rwanda and South Africa through Productive Liminality” Democratization 25(7): 1231-1250.
Foster, C., Graham, M., Mann, L., Waema, T., and N. Friederici (2018) “Digital Control in Value Chains: Challenges of Connectivity for East African Firms” Economic Geography 94(1), 68-86.
Mann, L. (2018) “Corporations Left to Other Peoples’ Devices: A Political Economy Perspective on the Big Data Revolution in Development” Development and Change 49(1): 3-36.
Meagher, K., Mann, L. and M. Bolt (2016) “Introduction: Global Economic Inclusion and African Workers” Journal of Development Studies 52(4): 471-482
Mann, L. and M. Graham (2016) “The Domestic Turn: Business Processing Outsourcing and the Growing Automation of Kenyan Organisations” Journal of Development Studies 52(4): 530-548.
Mann, L. and M. Berry (2016) “Understanding the Political Motivations that Shape Rwanda’s Emergent Developmental State” New Political Economy 21(1): 119-144.
Graham, M., Andersen, C. and L. Mann (2015) “Geographical Imagination and Technological Connectivity in East Africa” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 40(3): 334–349.
Mann, L. and E. Nzayisenga (2015) “Sellers on the Street: the Human Infrastructure of the Mobile Phone Network in Kigali, Rwanda” Critical African Studies 7(1):26-46
Mann, L. (2014) “Wasta!: the Long Term Implications of Education Expansion and Economic Liberalization on Politics in Sudan” Review of African Political Economy 41(142): 561-578.
Mann, L. (2013) ‘‘We Do Our Bit in Our Own Space’: DAL Group and the Development of a Curiously Sudanese Enclave Economy” Journal of Modern African Studies 51(2): 279-303.
Graham, M. and L. Mann (2013) “Imagining a Silicon Valley: Technological and Conceptual Connectivity in Kenya’s BPO and Software Development Sectors” Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 56(2): 1-19.
Edited Books
Meagher, K., Mann, L. and M. Bolt (Editors) (2017) Globalisation, Economic Inclusion and African Workers. Oxford: Routledge/Taylor and Francis (This book is based on a special issue.)
Book Chapters
Mann, L. and M. Graham (2017) “The Domestic Turn: Business Processing Outsourcing and the Growing Automation of Kenyan Organisations” Meagher et al. (Editors) Globalisation, Economic Inclusion and African Workers. Oxford: Routledge/Taylor and Francis (This is a re-print of our journal article in JDS).
Meagher, K., Mann, L. and M. Bolt (2017) “Introduction: Global Economic Inclusion and African Workers” Meagher et al. (Editors) Globalisation, Economic Inclusion and African Workers. Oxford: Routledge/Taylor and Francis (This is a re-print of our journal article in JDS).
Mann, L. (2014) “A Useful Digital Divide: Job Information, ICTs and the Sudanese Labour Market” Internet and Society Eds. Dutton, W. and M. Graham. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mann, L. (2009) “Breeze from an Open Door: Foreign Spirits, National Bodies and the Potential for Egyptian Imaginative Resistance” Ed. Baker, C. Expressions of the Body: Representations in African Text and Image Oxford: Peter Lang Publishers.
Book Reviews
Mann, L. (2017) “Review Article: Africa's ICT Revolution: Technical Regimes and Production Networks in South Africa and Tanzania” Africa: the Journal of the International Africa Institute 87(2): 435-438.
Mann, L. (2014) “Review Article: Business, Politics and the State in Africa” African Affairs 113(452): 467-468.
Mann, L. (2014) “Review Article: Neopatrimonialism in Africa and Beyond” Political Studies Review 12(1): 166-167.
Mann, L. (2007) “Review Article: Everyday Corruption and the State: Citizens and Public Officials in Africa” Africa: the Journal of the International Africa Institute 77 (4): 609-610.
Selected Other Works
Mann, L (2023) ‘The Evolution of the Global Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) Sector and the Shrinking Gains of FDI for Low- and Middle-Income Economies’ Sustainable Global Supply Chains Research Network Blogpost, September 2023. https://www.sustainablesupplychains.org/the-evolution-of-the-global-information-technology-enabled-services-ites-sector-and-the-shrinking-gains-of-fdi-for-low-and-middle-income-economies
Mann, L. (2023) ‘The Gendered Creep of Neo-classical Economics through Digitisation’ Think-piece for IT for Change, supported by the European Union and FES. ITforChange, Bangladore, India. February, 2023. https://itforchange.net/gendered-creep-of-neo-classical-economics-through-digitisation
Mann, L. (2021) “Beyond Profit and Efficency: A conversation with Laura Mann about a new social contract for the data age” Bot Populi, October 4th 2021. https://botpopuli.net/beyond-profit-and-efficiency/
Mann, L. (2021) “Good for Whom? Reading Between the Lines at Digital Davos LSE ID Blogpost. May 24th 2021. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/internationaldevelopment/2021/05/24/good-for-whom-reading-between-the-lines-at-digital-davos/
Ouma, M. and L Mann (2021) “On the ground the reality is different: policymakers in Kenyan agriculture should beware limits to platform knowledge Africa at LSE Blogpost. April 15th 2021. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2021/04/15/policymakers-kenya-agriculture-beware-limits-platform-tech-knowledge-colonisation/
Mann, L. (2021) “The Platformisation of Rural Kenya is Reshaping the Balance of Power within Agricultural Production Networks Africa at LSE Blogpost. April 1st, 2021. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2021/04/01/platformisation-digital-rural-kenya-reshaping-the-balance-of-power-agricultural-production-networks-app/
G. Iazzolino, L. Mann and M. Ouma (2020) 'A Digital New Deal Against Corporate Hijack of the Post-Covid 19 Future. Working Paper, IT for Change. https://itforchange.net/digital-new-deal/2020/10/29/a-digital-new-deal-against-corporate-hijack-of-the-post-covid-19-future/
Mann, L. and G. Iazzolino (2019) “See, Nudge, Control and Profit: Digital Platforms as Pervasive Epistemic Infrastructures” Working Paper, IT for Change. https://itforchange.net/platformpolitics/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Digital-Platforms-as-Privatized-Epistemic-Infrastructures-_5thMarch.pdf
Mann, L. and G. Iazzolino (2018) “The Rush for Data Risks Growing the North-South Divide” Science and Development Network (SciDev) September 19th 2018. https://scidev.net/global/data/opinion/the-rush-for-data-risks-growing-the-north-south-divide.html
Connectivity at the BOP Forum (2017) “Connectivity at the Bottom of the Pyramid: ICT4D and Informal Economic Inclusion in Africa” Bellagio Centre White Paper, December 2017. https://lauraelizabethmann.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/connectivity-at-the-bop_white-paper_2017.pdf
Mann, L. (2016) “The Data Revolution in Africa” African Technopolitan. 5: 90-92. http://www.acts-net.org/images/Pubs/Magazine/The_African_Technopolitan_January_2016_Issue.pdf
Mann, L., Graham, M. and N. Friederici (2015) “The Internet and Business Process Outsourcing in East Africa” Oxford Internet Institute Policy Paper, Oxford, UK. https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/the-internet-and-business-process-outsourcing-in-east-africa/
Awards and funding
Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa funding (with Dr. Muez Ali), 2024:
We have received funding to carry out a pilot study looking at the relationship between political beliefs and understanding of climate change and the political economy of higher education/science in select countries. (GB £14,000).
LSE ID-Mayling Birney Fund (with Professor James Putzel and Tin El Kadi), 2023:
We received funding to invite Professor Yu Hong from Zhejiang University as a Mayling Birney Global Scholar and to organise a workshop on the theme of Digital China (approximately GB £6,600).
LSE ID Research Infrastructure and Investment Funds, 2023:
I have received funding to extend my study of bio-informatics graduates to Chinese universities (GB £1,000).
Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa funding, 2021:
I received funding to host a day-long workshop on the implications of digitisation for women workers in the global economy, which included various other members of the department as well as Masters students. (GB £1,000).
LSE Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund (with Syerramia Willoughby), 2018:
Funding for six episodes of our podcast series about African knowledge production. This funding will also allow us to host a website about the series and to hold a high profile event to publicise the podcast and discuss its findings with the general public (GB £35,100).
Economic and Social Research Council, Open Call Grant, 2017:
I received fieldwork and buy-out funding for my current project “A Tale of Two Green Valleys: Power Struggles over Data-Driven Agro-Innovation in Kenya's Rift Valley and California's Central Valley” . I am the principal investigator, budgeted at 40% of my time over the next three years. A postdoctoral researcher is also supported 100% on the grant. (GB £511,915).
Economic and Social Research Council, Global Challenges Fund, 2017:
Fieldwork and buy-out funding as part of the Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID). I am budgeted at 10% of my time over five years (GB £34,370).
Review of Political Economy (ROAPE), Editorial Board (with Syerramia Willoughby), 2017:
Funding for three episodes of our podcast series about African knowledge production (GB £1,500).
LSE ID Research Infrastructure and Investment Funds (with Syerramia Willoughby), 2017:
Funding for three episodes of our podcast series about African knowledge production (GB £1,500).
LSE ID Research Infrastructure and Investment Funds (with Dr. Pritish Behuria), 2017:
Funding for the conference, ‘The Youth in Africa: Opportunities, Resistance and Transformation’ (GB £3,000).
LSE Cities Seed Fund for Urban Research (with Professor Kate Meagher), 2017:
Seed funding for the research project ‘What does Uber mean for African Urban Inclusion? Urban Regeneration, Virtual Casualisation and the Informal Sector’ (GB £7,260).
LSE ID Research Infrastructure and Investment Funds (with Professor Kate Meagher, Dr. Shamel Azmeh and Dr. Pritish Behuria), 2016:
Funding for the conference, ‘Africa’s Turn to Industrialize? Shifting Global Value Chains, Industrial Policy and African Development’ (GB £3,000).
Rockefeller Foundation (with Professor Kate Meagher) 2016:
Funding for the Bellagio Centre Conference: ‘Connectivity at the Bottom of the Pyramid: ICT4D and Informal Economic Inclusion in Africa’ (In-kind: the centre provided all meeting facilities, catering and accommodation for 19 participants).
The Institute of International Education (with Professor Kate Meagher), 2016:
Travel funding for all participants from African countries at the Rockefeller conference mentioned above (US $15,000).
LSE ID Research Infrastructure and Investment Funds (with Professor Kate Meagher), 2016:
Funding to cover additional travel costs of Rockefeller conference including visas for all participants and travel of UK and US based academics. (GB £2,280).
Landelijk Netwerk Vrouwelijke Hoogleraaren (Network of Female Professors), 2014-2015:
I received the Distinguished Woman Scientist Travel Fund to carry out fieldwork in Egypt for the 'Seeing the Needy' project (EU €1,500).
Economic and Social Research Council, 1+3 Funding 2006-2011:
Funding for my Masters by Research and PhD at the University of Edinburgh, fieldwork costs and nine month difficult language training (Arabic) (approximately GB £80,000).
Selected Invited Presentations
Mann, L. (2024) ‘Digital Development’ Workshop on Building Economic Resilience through South-South Cooperation and Targeted Policy Strategies, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Feb 27th-29th 2024, Bridgetown, Barbados.
Mann, L. and M. Ali (2022) “Higher Education Reforms and the Long-term Impact on the Orientation of the Professional Policy-making Community of Khartoum, Sudan” University of Michigan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS), October 24th, 2022 (online).
Mann, L. (2022) Discussant at the launch event of the ‘Advancing Governance Indicator Systems’, Luskin School of Public Affairs, UCLA, October 10th-11th, 2022.
Mann, L. (2021) “Thinking Through the Gendered Impacts of Digitisation” Invited Keynote Speaker at the Feminist Visions of the Digital Economy MENA region workshop, Access to Knowledge for Development (A2K4D) Center at the School of Business at the American University in Cairo (online), June 14th, 2022.
Mann, L and R. Alexander (2022) “Digitisation and the Global Knowledge Economy: examining the careers of bio-informaticians in Kenya and the USA” Invited Keynote Speaker, Copenhagen Business School, June 8th 2022.
Mann, L. (2021) “Digitisation and Gendered Division of Labour”, Feminist Institute, IT for Change conference, Mumbai, India October 14th 2021, (online).
Mann, L. (2020) “Digital Infrastructures as Rent Infrastructures: Understanding New Pathways of Capital Accumulation and Structural Transformation within Contemporary Digital Capitalism(s)” 4S Conference, online (Prague), August 20th, 2020.
Mann, L. (2018) “See, Nudge, Control and Profit: Digital Platforms as Competitive Research Infrastructures within African Economies” Berkeley Africa Colloquium, Moses Hall, University of California Berkeley, USA, September 26th 2018.
http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/asc.html?event_ID=118973
Mann, L. (2018) “Platforms, Proprietary Knowledge Systems and Distributive Justice” Invited Keynote Speaker at the IT for Change's Project Workshop, 'Policy Frameworks for Digital Platforms: Moving from Openness to Inclusion' IT University, Mumbai, India, June 15th 2018.
Mann, L. (2018) “Development Paradigms and African Digital Innovation: The Case of New Institutional Economics” Globalization, Transnationalism and Development (GTD) Colloquium, Spiegelzaal, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, May 16th 2018.
https://macimide.maastrichtuniversity.nl/events/16052018-gtd-colloquium-by-laura-mann/
Mann, L. (2018) “The Challenge of Domestic Resource Mobilisation in the Digital Age” Invited Presentation by the South African Permanent Delegation on the panel 'An African Digital Structural Transformation', UNCTAD's E-Commerce Week, Palais des Nations, Room XXVI, Geneva, Switzerland, April 16th 2018.
http://unctad.org/en/conferences/e-week2018/Pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=1711
Mann, L. and G. Iazzolino (2018) “Digitisation as an Enabler of Growth in Developing Countries” European Parliament Group Hearing on 'Digitalisation for Development: Reducing Inequalities Through Technology', EU Parliament, Brussels, Belgium, April 11th April 2018.
Mann, L. and J. Kleibert (2018) “Capturing Value amidst Global Restructuring? Economic Development and Information and Technology-Enabled Services in India, the Philippines and Kenya” UNCTAD Research Seminar Series, Palais des Nations, Room VIII, Geneva, Switzerland, March 20th 2018.
http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=1794
Mann, L. (2018) “Development Paradigms and African Digital Innovation” UNCTAD Multi-year Expert Meeting on Enhancing the Enabling Economic Environment at All Levels in Support of Inclusive and Sustainable Development, and the Promotion of Economic Integration and Cooperation” Palais des Nations, Room XXVI, Geneva, Switzerland, March 19th 2018.
http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=1693
Mann, L. (2017) “Corporations Left to Other Peoples’ Devices: A Political Economy Perspective on the Big Data Revolution in Development” 'Society through the Lens of the Digital' VolkswagenStiftung, Herrenhausen, Hannover, Germany, June 1st 2017.
Mann, L. (2017) “Social Dislocation and the Protective Response: Smartcards on Informal Buses in Nairobi and Johannesburg” Society for Economic Anthropology (SEA) Annual Conference: Financialisation and Beyond: Debt, Money, Wealth and the Capture of Value, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA, April 8th 2017.
Mann, L. (2016) “Who Owns the Data? Contrasting Data Governance Frameworks in East African and North American Agriculture” Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UK Government) Africa Study Day, Selwyn College, Cambridge, UK, March 11th 2016.
Mann, L. (2016) “The National Congress Party (NCP), the Labour Market and Youth Unemployment” Sudanese Programme Workshop, St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford, UK, February 15th 2012.
Editorial Work and other Service Work
I am currently on the editorial board of Platforms & Society. I was formerly on the Editorial Working Group (EWG) of the journal, Review of African Political Economy and was formerly the Book Reviews Editor for the journal, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. I have also reviewed publications for a range of publications including Oxford University Press, Africa, African Affairs, African Geographical Review, Development and Change, Environment and Planning: A, Geoforum, Human Geography, Humanity, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Modern African Studies, Journal of Social Sciences, Journal of Information and Communication Technologies and Human Development, New Political Economy, PLOS ONE, and Review of African Political Economy, among others.
I have reviewed grant funding applications for the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Belgium’s Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO).
In January, 2018, I was an internal examiner for a PhD thesis from Royal Holloway, Geography Department. In July 2020, I was an external examiner for a PhD thesis in the Humanities Faculty at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. I was on the external PhD committee of Julie Zollman at Tufts University in US, and in October, 2022, I was one of her examiners. In 2023, I was the examiner of a PhD thesis from the School of Oriental and African Studies. In January 2024, I was the examiner of a PhD thesis from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Language Skills
I speak intermediate Sudanese, Egyptian and Modern Standard Arabic, working Spanish, basic French and very basic Farsi/Persian and Kinyarwanda.
Hobbies
In my free time, I campaign for worthy political parties and causes, read novels, paint, climb and boulder, grow flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables, run with my dog, Minsky and volunteer as a coach for a local girls' football (soccer) team. Go Hackney Youth!