Gianluca Iazzolino

Gianluca Iazzolino was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. He's currently focusing on how AI and digital platforms are reshaping governance in areas of limited statehood in Africa for the ERC-funded project ConflictNET. His research interests lie at the intersection of political economy, socio-legal studies and digital geography, with a geographic focus on East Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Somaliland in particular), where he has conducted extensive fieldwork over the past ten years. He uses ethnographic methods to explore the interplay of technology and power in the specific cases of hybrid governance, digital finance and digital platforms in the Global South. Besides working on the ConflictNET project, Gianluca is PI of the UKRI-funded Datafication and Digital Rights in East Africa, which explores how digital platforms are reshaping processes of inclusion and exclusion and instigating new forms of organisation and practices of contestation in East Africa. 

Gianluca completed his PhD in African Studies from the University of Edinburgh and was a Research Fellow at the LSE. He is a fellow of the Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa, LSE, and of the Institute of Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI), University of California Irvine. Previously, he has worked as a consultant for NGOs and aid organisations in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger, and as a freelance journalist in Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, Russia and India.