My research project focuses on the changing nature and availability of knowledge-intensive work opportunities in developing regions and the role of digital platforms in this transformation. The research work aims to recognize how different subsets of platform workers navigate the quality and the long-term livelihood implications of platform-mediated digital labour and how their local development needs contribute to shaping these experiences.

Using Kenya as an empirical case study, the research will particularly focus on how this form of work interfaces with local development realities (e.g., employment market conditions, skills development landscape), evolving knowledge work trends (e.g., expansion of generative artificial intelligence), and workers’ resilience in the changing job market, aiming to reveal the extent to which digital platform work contributes to or detracts from the long-term realization of decent and meaningful livelihoods in developing communities.