Digital Transactions in Asia IV 10-11th February 2022 School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland Asian Communication Research Centre, Wee Kim Wee School of Communications, Nanyang Technological University Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi All Times at SGP DAY 1 - 10th February 2022 9.00-9.15 Welcome 9.15-10.00 Keynote Central Bank Digital Currencies in Asia: A Regional Perspective Bill Maurer, University of California Irvine 10.00-11.15 Panel 1 Chair: Haiqing Yu, RMIT From Transactions to Carbon Neutralization: The Ambitious Capitalization of Alipay in China Ping Sun, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Tong Tong, Tsinghua University Recontextualizing Debt: China’s Credit Collection Callers and Anti-Collection Alliance During Covid-19 Tom McDonald and Rao Yichen, University of Hong Kong The Algorithmic Imaginaries of Credit Rating: Everyday Experience with Sesame Credit on Alipay 1 Fan Liang, Duke Kunshan University and Haiqing Yu, RMIT University 11.15-11.30 Virtual Tea 11.30-12.45 Panel 2: Chair: Adrian Athique, University of Queensland Digital Loan Sharks And Regulatory Framework In The Developing World: Case Of India Kawaljit Kaur and P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Invoking Blockchain Technology in e-Government Services: A Cybernetic Perspective Stuti Saxena and Richa Thapliyal Graphic Era University, Dehradun Mobilising Citizen Participation Against Corruption in India: A Study of Three ICTBased Civil Society Initiatives from the Grassroots Anwesha Chakraborty, University of Bologna and Preeti Raghunath, Monash University, Malaysia. 12.45-13.45 LUNCH 13.45-15.00 Panel 3 - India Chair: P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Trudging Along: Adoption and Non-Adoption of Mobile Payment Platforms among Street Vendors in India Shubh Majumdarr and Rajiv George Aricat, Indian Institute of Management Ranchi Tale of Two ‘Data Cities’: Platform Urbanisms and Everyday Transactions in India Preeti Raghunath, Monash University, Malaysia, and Kuriakose Mathew, Amity Institute of Social Science. Consumer Experiences in Mobile Payment Services: Text Analytics of User Generated Reviews Sachin Kumar Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi 15.00-15.15 virtual Tea 15.15-16.00 Keynote Feminizing transactions: Learning from the FemLabCo Project Usha Raman, Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad 2 DAY 2 - 11th February 2022 9.00-9.15 Welcome 9.15 - 10.00 Keynote From Blocking to Brokering: The Geopolitics of Digital Infrastructures Across the Asia-Pacific Heather A. Horst, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University 10.00-11.10 Plenary 1 Digital Transactions at the (Singaporean) Crossroads Chair: Gerard Goggin (NTU) Teleview and the Digital Aspirations of the Infrastructural State Hallam Stevens, NTU Does Digital Technology help SMEs to Innovate? How?’ Boh Wai Fong, Nanyang Business School Super-Apps and Transactional Creep: Modalities and Lim Sun Sun, Singapore University of Technology and Design Fantasies of Rehabilitation: Disability and Food Delivery Platforms Renyi Hong, National University of Singapore 11.10-11.25 virtual Tea 11.25-12.50 Panel 4 Chair: Haiqing Yu, RMIT Decentralisation and Neoliberalisation: Artist-Audience Interaction in the BlockchainBased Music Streaming Platform Audius Mick Vierbergen, Hong Kong Baptist University What is a ‘Good’ Copyright System for Digital Transactions in Asia? Reflections From Myanmar Bondy Kaye, Queensland University of Technology Wikipedia and the Pandemic: A Case Study of Digital Work, Labour and Professionalism. Bunty Avieson, University of Sydney and Suruchi Mazumdar, Nanyang Technological University 3 The Platformisation Of Pandemic Governance and the Infrastructuralisation of Public Health Surveillance in Vietnam Dang Nguyen, RMIT University 12.50-13.30 LUNCH 13.30-14.45 Panel 5: Chair: Jinna Tay, National University of Singapore Embedding Digital Transactions in the Philippines Adrian Athique, University of Queensland Digital Transactions, Gift-Giving And 'Abot Kamay’ During The Covid-19 Pandemic In The Philippines Jozon Lorenzana, Ateneo de Manila Digital Transactions and Filipino Live-In Domestic Workers: “Good Enough” Access, Consumer Culture, and the Financialization Of Everyday Life Cecilia S. Uy-Tioco 14.45-15.00 Virtual Tea 15.00-16.15 Panel 6 Chair: Emma Baulch, Monash University Malaysia "All we Have to Do is Work as Hard as We Can”: Female Drivers and Their Vulnerability in Gojek Indonesia Amalinda Sairani Digital Financial Inclusion of the Readymade Garment Workers: The Evidence From Bangladesh Mohammad Sahid Ullah, University of Chittagong Where are the Women? Gendered Indian Digital Production Culture Post #metoo Smith Mehta, Centre for Advanced Internet Studies, Bochum and Darshana Mini, University of Wisconsin-Madison 16.15-17.00 Keynote Digital Micro-Credit and Agricultural Financing in Rural China Nicholas Loubere, Lund University 4 Digital Transaction Platforms in Asia IV Workshop Sessions April 19-20th 2023, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University Following from our successful Digital Transactions in Asia IV hybrid conference partnership in 2022, Nanyang Technological University and the Australian Research Council are pleased to convene this series of workshops, bringing leading scholars of Digital Asia together in key debates on critical aspects of digital transactions in Asia. Preceding the invited workshops, we will hold two public talks on the topic of Digital Transactions in Asia by Professor Gerard Goggin (Sydney), Professor Haiqing Yu (RMIT) and Assoc. Prof Adrian Athique (Queensland). 19th April 10-11am Digital Transactions: Platforms, Affordances, Chains and Cultures, Adrian Athique 19th April 11-12am Super-Platforms and Southeast Asia, Gerard Goggin China's Digital Transaction Platforms in Southeast Asia, Haiqing Yu Each of the invited workshops will be of one hour in duration and open to participation from interested NTU researchers as well as the ARC Digital Transactions Platforms in Asia project team. These workshops are intended to be exploratory, participatory and productive - interrogating key questions, defining the terms of enquiry and addressing contemporary developments in the region. Workshop themes and timings: Day 1 19th April 9.30 Kopi 19th April 10-11 [Public] Digital Transactions: Affordances, Chains and Cultures, Adrian Athique 19th April 11-12 [Public] Super-Platforms and Southeast Asia, Gerard Goggin [Public] China's Digital Transaction Platforms in Southeast Asia, Haiqing Yu 19th April 12-2:15 Lunch at Canteen 19th April 2:15-3:15 [Invited] Transaction Platforms. Leaders: Gerard Goggin, University of Sydney and Emma Baulch, Monash University Malaysia Key topics: 1. Platform biographies 2. Comparing platforms/Beyond platforms 3. What do platforms tell us about their Asian/Southeast Asian places? (and viceversa) 4. Beyond Affordances 19th Apr 3:30-4:30 [Invited] Labour Transactions. Leaders: Cheryll Soriano, De La Salle University and Haiqing Yu, RMIT Key topics: 1. Transaction chains and platforms that facilitate, condition, and produce (and reproduced by) platform-mediated work: e.g. access/entry, work/hustle, payment, worker-led reworking/brokerage. 2. Local infrastructures and relations: transaction affordances conditioned by local infrastructures and social relations of trust and influence. 3. Digital labour: from platforms and machines back to humans: exploring the cultural, technological, organisational, and social (class, gender, race/ethnicity, and other hierarchical divisions) relations of digital labour in the transnational transaction chains. Participants: 1. Cheryll Soriano, De La Salle University, 10 mins 2. Giang Nguyen, UQ, 10 mins (joining online via Zoom) 3. Ziyi WANG, NUS: 10 mins 4. Haiqing Yu, RMIT: 10 mins 5. Jack Qiu to comment, 5-10 mins 6. Q&A: 10 mins Day 2 20th April 9.30 Kopi 20th April 10-11 UQ [Invited] Financial Inclusion and Social Development. Leader: Elske Van De Fliert, 20th April 11-12 [Invited] Digital Transactions in Singapore: Leader: Jack Qiu, NTU Key topics: 1. Future of work and adult learning 2. Gig economy and social policy 3. Potential problems in the digitalization of recruitment/employment Participants: 1. Sun Sun Lim, SMU, 20 mins 2. Jack Qiu, NTU, 15 mins 3. Q&A: 25 mins 20th April 12-2:15 Lunch at Canteen 20th Apr 2:15-5:15 [Closed] ARC Team Workshop (Project team only) Abstracts & Bios: Digital Transactions: Platforms, Chains, Affordances and Cultures Adrian Athique The convergence of the finance and technology sectors since 2008 requires communication scholars to pay closer attention to the transactional architecture of the Internet, and more radically, to reconsider the Internet as a transactional architecture. In this talk, I want to explore ways of defining transaction platforms and tokens, and to broadly identify their functions within the larger digital ecology. Placing emphasis on the integration of financial, social and cultural transactions, I also want to explore the notion of transaction chains operating in an embedded platform economy and, as a consequence, to highlight the variability and evolution of transactional cultures in Asia. My examples will be drawn from across Asia's regions, allowing me to conclude with a brief introduction to the Digital Transaction Platforms in Asia project and its key aims. Bio: Adrian Athique is based at the University of Queensland, having previously served as the Chair of Arts at the University of Waikato and the director of the Media, Culture and Society programme at the University of Essex. Adrian's career research addresses the culture, sociology and economics of the media, especially in Asia. Alongside over forty articles and chapters, Adrian is author of The Multiplex in India (2009, Routledge, with Douglas Hill), Indian Media (2012, Polity), Digital Media and Society (2013, Polity) and Transnational Audiences (2016, Polity). Adrian has also edited a number of recent volumes on media and digital economies, including The Indian Media Economy (2018, 2 Vols, OUP with Vibodh Parthasarathi and SV Srinivas), Digital Transactions in Asia (2019, Routledge, with Emma Baulch) and Platform Capitalism in India (2020, with Vibodh Parthasarathi). Adrian is currently leading the ARC Discovery project Digital Transaction Platforms in Asia and is also contributing to the SSHRC international partnership project Global Media and Internet Concentration. Super-Platforms and Southeast Asia, Gerard Goggin, University of Sydney In this talk, I reflect upon the rise of digital transaction platforms in and nascent to the Southeast region, especially those that have attracted considerable industry, policy, and public attention such as Grab and Gojek. While these platforms are the subject of ongoing research, in an international context they are not as well understood or theorized –– or seen as paradigmatic –– as other East Asian counterparts or Western based digital platforms. I will look at the emergence of these platforms as part of the wider, complex regional and global evolution of mobile media and communications and apps, especially in the path out of the pandemic. The layering of services, functions, and affordances, has seen them dubbed as ‘super-apps’ as they seek extend their reach as digital platforms into the heart of contemporary transactions, cultures, and social relations. What this means for social futures, however, is an open question. Bio: Gerard Goggin is Professor of Media and Communications, University of Sydney. He is also an Associate Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated-Decision Making & Society. From 2019-2022, he was Wee Kim Wee Professor of Communication Studies at NTU. Gerard has a longstanding research interest in mobile media and communication, and its policy and governance, with his books including Apps (2021). Gerard has a new project entitled After the Smartphone. Gerard’s other main area of expertise is disability, technology, accessibility, and inclusive design, where hei s curtrently working on a book project on disability, emerging technology and politics with Kuansong Victor Zhuang. China’s Digital Transaction Platforms in Southeast Asia Haiqing Yu In this talk, I will examine the investment structure and performance of major Chinese platform companies (represented by Tencent and Alibaba) in Southeast Asia, one of the high growth areas for international investment. I provide an overview of the typology of these platform companies in overseas commercial activities in Southeast Asian countries, with a focus on five elements in their stack: infrastructure, applications, content, data, and governance. The ‘stack’ concept is drawn from the six-layer concept of Benjamin Bratton (2015)—earth, cloud, city, address, interface, and user—and the five-layered framework of Bryce Barros et al (2022)—network infrastructure, devices, applications, content, and governance—to illustrate how ‘digital transaction’ functions as the nexus to understand Chinese digital companies as platform-centred, multilayered, transnational players in the global digital economic ecosystem. The talk seeks to look beyond the angle of security and digital authoritarianism when examining China’s digital influence in the region. Bio: Haiqing Yu is a Professor of Media and Communication and an ARC Future Fellow (2021-2025) at RMIT University, Australia. She is also a Chief Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence on Automated Decision-Making and Society. Haiqing is a critical media studies scholar with expertise on Chinese digital media, technologies and culture and their sociopolitical impact in China, Australia and the Asia Pacific. Her current projects examine the social implications of China’s social credit system, technological innovation, and digital transformation; China’s digital presence in Australasia; and Chinese-language digital/social media in Australia. Securing skills, jobs and representation via digital means: Enhancing employability in mobile-centric Singapore Sun Sun Lim This presentation offers a broad outlook on Singapore’s pronounced shift towards the use of digital platforms for provisions in adult education and training, processes and practices for job recruitment and application, and worker engagement by companies and unions. It sets the context for why and how this shift occurred and discusses selected best practices and learning points. It also explores the adverse implications of this shift for the digitally disadvantaged and how these can be addressed. It considers how individuals and organizations can benefit from such digitalization while attending to its potential downsides. Bio: Sun Sun Lim is Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement and Professor of Communication and Technology at the Singapore Management University. She has extensively researched the social impact of technology, focusing on technology domestication, future of work and smart city technologies. She authored Transcendent Parenting: Raising Children in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2020) and co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Communication and Society (2020). A Fellow of the International Communication Association, she was a Nominated Member of the 13th Parliament of Singapore and an honoree of the inaugural Singapore 100 Women in Tech list in 2020. See www.sunsunlim.com Auditing Gig Work Platforms: Fairwork’s Research, Advocacy and Impact Jack Linchuan QIU (NTU), HONG Renyi (NUS), and Adam BADGER (Oxford) The rise of the “gig economy” poses fundamental challenges to pre-existing social compacts regarding labour relations around the world, with vital implications for Singapore’s workforce, economic growth, and its tripartism framework. While some see an inevitable trend toward digital technologies and AI (artificial intelligence)-powered platforms dominating workers, others seek to find solutions through state intervention and/or corporate self-management. Both latter approaches, we contend, would be incomplete without hearing the voices of gig workers and considering their experiences in light of relevant platform policies and government regulations. Can gig work platforms be subjected to labour audits? If so, how? This article introduces the Fairwork project as a case in which labour audits are conducted to assess ride hailing and food delivery platforms across 5 continents in 30 countries including Singapore. We aim to discuss the project’s background and its 5 main principles, its methods of research and advocacy, the promises of auditing gig work platforms, its social and policy impact, and its limitations. We also present findings from focus groups and interviews involving ride hailing drivers and food delivery riders in Singapore, which were conducted in 2021-2022 using the Fairwork methodology. In so doing, we discuss the lessons learnt from the case of Fairwork and similar projects of labour-auditing gig work platforms, which deserve more attention and exploration in Singapore and elsewhere. Bio: Professor Jack Qui is the Shaw Foundtion Professor in Media Technology at Nanyang Technological University. Professor Qui grew up in China and lived in California during his PhD studies. Professor Qui was previously a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2004 to 2020 and at the National University of singapore form 2022-2022. Professor Qui works on issues of digital media and social change in relation to labor, class, globalization, and sustainability, especially in the contexts of Asia and the Global South. He has published more than 100 research articles and chapters and 10 books in both English and Chinese including Goodbye iSlave: A Manifesto for Digital Abolition (U of Illinois Press, 2016), World Factory in the Information Age (Guangxi Normal U Press, 2013), and Working-Class Network Society (MIT Press, 2009). Professor Qui is an elected Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA), a recipient of the C. Edwin Baker Award for the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy, and President of the Chinese Communication Association (CCA).