Speaker: Dr Jordana George, Texas A&M University
Title: Blockchain as an Emancipatory Technology
Date: Thu, 27th Jul 2023
Time: 12pm – 2pm
Venue: Building 24, Copland, Seminar Room 1106
Priya Muthukannan is the host of this visit
ABSTRACT
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) make up roughly 90% of the colored gemstone trade, a still untamed industry where money laundering, cartels, arms purchases, and crime run rampant while many miners prospect and dream of finding “the big one.” Women make up to 30% to 50% of ASM, often in developing regions. Struggling to make a living and support their families, women miners are subject to discrimination, unfair labor practices, and poor access to rich foreign markets. Grounded in a longitudinal case study in Africa, this qualitative research examines the journey of an organization seeking to emancipate women miners through supply chains that embrace technology, provenance, and disintermediation. This research demonstrates the strategic value of emancipatory technologies for firms. Secondly, we find evidence that combinations of storytelling and digital records create multidimensional provenance that mitigates a number of supply chain risks, particularly in tainted chains. Lastly, this research extends Tang's framework for engaging marginalized populations as suppliers and producers.
BIO
Jordana George is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. Jordana is primarily a qualitative researcher and works with grounded theory. She holds a Ph.D. from Baylor University, an MBA from Penn State, and an MFA from the University of California at Davis. She formerly managed client services, technical support, & systems implementation at technology companies and educational institutions. She currently researches the social impact of information systems, including various forms of digital activism, fakery such as fake news and fake images, and digital forms of corporate social responsibility, such as data philanthropy and emancipatory technologies.