School of Social and Political Science

Background

Biography

Mohammad is a Lecturer in African Studies and International Development. At Edinburgh, he teaches on a range of Postgraduate (both online and on campus) and Undergraduate courses.
Course Convenor:

• Work Futures: Edinburgh Futures Institute.
• Contemporary Issues in International Development: School of Social and Political Science.
• International Development- Research Design and Practice: School of Social and Political Science.

In the past he has convened the courses: Politics and Theories of International Development and Governance, Development, and Poverty in Africa, and Researching International Development. As a testament to his teaching excellence, he has been awarded the Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (UK).

He is a Senior Research Fellow (Honorary) at the British Institute for Eastern Africa and Senior Research Associate at the School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg. He was also a Fellow of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Digital Economy and Society. 

He holds a Ph.D in Geography from Trinity College Dublin. He has extensive experience of conducting research both in India and Africa.

Before coming to Edinburgh, Mohammad was a Researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, where he was a part of the ERC-funded project Geonet: investigating the changing connectivities and potentials of Sub-Saharan Africa’s knowledge economy. As a part of the project, he lead the research on digital outsourcing and gig economy in Africa. At Oxford, he also taught a Masters course on Economic Development in Digital Capitalism.

Before joining the OII he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). At UJ, his work examined at the political economy of India’s engagements in Africa. He also briefly worked as a Research Assistant at Trinity College Dublin, for an Irish Research Council funded project on the role of information and communication technologies in enterprise development and industrial change in Africa.

He is the author of 'The Digital Continent', (2022) published by Oxford University Press. He has 20 peer-reviewed publications including highly-reputed journals, such as Environment and Planning A, Competition and Change, Gender and Development, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Review of African Political Economy, Journal of Modern African Studies, International Labour Review, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, First Monday, and Urban Forum. Peer-reviewed book chapters have been published by Sage and Cambridge University Press. He regularly contributes to public debate through blogs, articles for online news sources, and radio interviews. His articles have appeared in New Statesman and The Conversation. 

Mohammad has received funding the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Foundation of Urban and Regional Studies. His PhD was funded through Trinity Research Studentship, Trinity College, University of Dublin.

Books

• Anwar, M. A. and Graham, M. (2022) The Digital Continent: Placing Africa in Planetary Networks of Work. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Open Access.

Journal articles

• Anwar M. A. and Brukwe, K. (Forthcoming) ‘We endure because we need money’: everyday violence and domestic work in South Africa. Canadian Journal of Development Studies.
  Anwar, M. A. (2022) Platforms of Inequality: Gender Dynamics of Digital Labour in Africa. Gender and Development. Vol. 30 (3): 747-764.
• Anwar, M. A., Otieno, E. & Stein. M. (2022)  Locked In, Logged Out: Pandemic and Ride-hailing in South Africa and Kenya. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 1-22. doi:10.1017/S0022278X22000234
• Anwar, M. A., Odeo, J. and Otieno. E. (2022). ‘There is no Future in it’. Pandemic and ride-hailing hustle in Africa’. International Labour Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12364
• Anwar, M.A. and Graham, M. (2021)  "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Freedom, Flexibility, Precarity and Vulnerability in the Gig Economy in Africa", Special Issue Competition and Change: the Journal of Global Political Economy. Vol. 25 (2): 237-258. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1024529420914473 
• Anwar, M. A. and Ansari, A. S. (2021). ‘Taking the bull by its horns: the political economic logics of new farm laws and agrarian dissent in India’ Contemporary South Asia. 29(4): 571-578.
• Anwar, M.A. and Graham, M. (2020)  "Hidden Transcripts of the Gig Economy: Labour Agency and the New Art of Resistance among African Gig Workers", Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. Vol. 52 (7): 1269-1291. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19894584 
• Anwar, M.A. and Graham, M. (2020)  "Digital labour at economic margins: African workers and the global information economy", Review of African Political Economy. Vol 47 (63): 95-105. https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/crea20/47/163
• Anwar, M.A. and Graham, M. (2019)  "Does economic upgrading lead to social upgrading in contact centers? Evidence from South Africa.", African Geographical Review. 38 (3) 209-226.
• Graham, M. and Anwar, M.A. (2019)  "The global gig economy: Towards a planetary labour market?", First Monday.
• Graham, M., Ojanpera, S., Anwar, M.A. and Friederici, N. (2017)  "Digital Connectivity and African Knowledge Economies", Questions de communication. 32 (32) 345-360.
• Anwar, M.A. and Carmody, P. (2016)  "Bringing globalization to the countryside: Special Economic Zones in India", Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. 37 (2) 121-138.
• Anwar, M.A., Carmody, P., Surborg, B. and Corcoran, A. (2014)  "The Diffusion and Impacts of Information and Communication Technology on Tourism in the Western Cape, South Africa", Urban Forum. 25 (4) 531-545.
• Anwar, M.A. (2014)  "Indian Foreign Direct Investments in Africa: A Geographical Perspective", Bulletin of Geography. Socio–Economic Series. 26 (26) 35-49.
• Anwar, M.A. (2014)  "New Modes of Industrial Manufacturing: India's Experience with Special Economic Zones", Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series. 24 (24) 7-25.

Peer-Reviewed Chapters

• Etieno, E., Stein, M. Anwar, M. A. (2020) Ride Ride Hailing Drivers Left Alone at the Wheel: Experiences from South Africa and Kenya, in Carmody, P., McCann, G., Colleran, C., O’Halloran, C. (eds) COVID-19 in the Global South: Impacts and Responses, Bristol University Press, Bristol.
• Wood, A., Graham, M. and Anwar, M.A. (2020)  "Minimum Wages for Online Labour Platforms? Regulating the Global Gig Economy." In: 'The Digital Transformation of Labor (Open Access): Automation, the Gig Economy and Welfare Larsson, A. and Teigland, R. (eds) Routledge Studies in Labour Economics. London: Routledge. pp. 74-79.
• Graham, M. and Anwar, M.A. (2018)  "Digital Labour" In: Digital Geographies Ash, J., Kitchin, R. and Leszczynski, A. (eds). SAGE. 177-187.
• Anwar, M.A. (2018)  "Connecting South Africa: ICTs, Uneven Development and Poverty Debates." In: The Geography of South Africa: Contemporary Changes and New Directions, Knight, J. and Rogerson, C. (eds) World Regional Geography Book Series. Springer.
• Graham, M. and Anwar, M.A. (2018)  "Two models for a fairer sharing economy" In: The Cambridge Handbook of Law and Regulation of the Sharing Economy, Davidson, N., Infranca, J. and Finck, M. (eds). New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 328-340.

Non-Peer Reviewed

• Graham, M. and Anwar, M.A. (2020)  "The global gig economy: towards a planetary labour markets?" In: 'The Digital Transformation of Labor: Automation, the Gig Economy and Welfare' Larsson, A. and Teigland, R. (eds) Routledge Studies in Labour Economics. London: Routledge. pp. 213-234.
• Anwar, M. (2013)  Book Review, Mace, A (2013) City Suburbs: Placing Suburbia in a Post-suburban World, London: Routledge. RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group. Royal Geographical Society, Urban Geography Research Group.
• Anwar, M.A. (2011)  Book Review, Banarjee-Guha (2010) Accumulation by Dispossession: Transformative Cities in the New Global Order, New Delhi: Sage. RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group.. Royal Geographical Society, Urban Geography Research Group.

Media Articles/Internet publications

• Anwar, M. A. (2022) Digital technology: good for African economies, bad for workers. The Conversation.
• Anwar, M. A. (2020) “We work for Uber”: South Africa’s gig drivers left alone at the wheel, African Arguments.
• ANWAR, M.A. (2019)  Most call centre jobs are a dead end for South Africa’s youth. The Conversation.
• ANWAR, M.A. (2018)  How Marx predicted the worst effects of the gig economy more than 150 years ago.. New Statesman.
• ANWAR, M.A. (2017)  Obsession with growth won’t help South Africa’s economic recovery.. The Conversation.
• Anwar, M.A. (2017)  White people in South Africa still hold the lion’s share of all forms of capital. The Conversation.
• Anwar, M.A. (2016)  Low income and high competition: digital jobs in a neoliberal age. Union Solidarity International.
• Anwar, M.A. (2015)  The lesser known story of India’s role in Ethiopian land deals. The Conversation.
• Anwar, M.A. (2015)  Why south-south co-operation is a myth when it comes to BRICS and Africa. The Conversation.
• Anwar, M.A. (2014)  UN Security Council’s failure stretches from Syria to Crimea. The Conversation.
• Anwar, M.A. (2013)  Book Review of: A. Mace (2013) City Suburbs: Placing Suburbia in a Post-suburban World, London: Routledge.. Royal Geographical Society, IBG Urban Geography Research Group.
• Anwar, M.A. (2011)  Book Review of: Banerjee-Guha, S. (2010) Accumulation by Dispossession: Transformative Cities in the new Global Order, Sage. Royal Geographical Society, IBG Urban Geography Research Group.