Digital transformation is reshaping African economies, but inequalities in access to digital technologies remain. This interdisciplinary workshop brings together scholars, students, policymakers, and development practitioners from Africa and Europe to examine how digital transformation influences wealth accumulation, social inclusion, and sustainable rural futures.
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Digital transformation is rapidly reshaping African economies, creating new opportunities for wealth, social mobility, and sustainable rural development. Technologies such as digital financial services, digital agricultural advisory platforms, e-commerce systems, artificial intelligence, and mobile technologies are transforming agrifood systems and redefining livelihood strategies across the continent. However, significant inequalities remain, particularly regarding who can access and benefit from these digital opportunities.
This interdisciplinary workshop brings together scholars, students, policymakers, and development practitioners from Africa and Europe to examine how digital transformation influences wealth accumulation, social inclusion, and sustainable rural futures. Particular attention is given to the role of digitalisation in addressing socio-economic inequalities related to gender, age, education, and geographic location.
The workshop fosters interdisciplinary dialogue across economics, development studies, sociology, public policy, and digital studies while promoting Africa–Europe research collaboration. It will also provide a platform for postgraduate students and early-career researchers to engage with leading scholars working on African development issues.
Researchers and students alike are invited to contribute to the workshop. If you would like to give a presentation, please send an e-mail with your name, institutional affiliation, current position (e.g., student / doctoral researcher / professor), discipline / research field, and the topic of your presentation to Abdulrazaq Daudu and Jakob Kapeller until 30 October 2026.
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Dr Abdulrazaq Kamal Daudu
University of Ilorin (Nigeria) | Gender and Development Studies
Abdulrazaq Kamal Daudu is a senior lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development at the University of Ilorin (Nigeria). His research examines how gender, digital technologies, agricultural innovations, and policy interventions shape rural livelihoods, food security, and welfare outcomes in developing countries, particularly across Sub-Saharan Africa. He specialises in gender and development, digital agriculture, agricultural extension, climate-smart agriculture, and rural transformation. His recent work focuses on digital extension services, e-commerce platforms, digital financial inclusion, climate-smart agricultural practices, land governance, and the welfare impacts of agricultural policies. Through the application of advanced quantitative methods and impact evaluation techniques, he investigates pathways for enhancing the resilience and productivity of smallholder farmers, women, and youth in agrifood systems.
Abdulrazaq Kamal Daudu has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of the Pan-African Network for Economic Analysis of Policies (PANAP), the Agriculture and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE), and the French Association of Development Economics (AFEDEV). He was a visiting researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute (Sweden) and a research fellow at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria.
Website
https://aerd.agriculture.unilorin.edu.ng/staffmember/dr-daudu-kamal-abdulrazaq/
Prof. Jakob Kapeller
University of Duisburg-Essen | Socio-Economics
E-mail: jakob.kapeller@uni-due.de
Prof. Jakob Kapeller
University of Duisburg-Essen | Socio-Economics
E-mail: jakob.kapeller@uni-due.de
Jakob Kapeller is a philosopher who has accidentally become an economist. He serves as a professor at the Institute for Socio-Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen and heads the Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy (ICAE) at Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria). His research interests focus on socio-economic change from a political economy perspective, the history of economic and political ideas, the philosophy of the social sciences, distributional issues and heterodox economics.
Jakob Kapeller has published widely in different disciplinary contexts. His work has been featured in journals such as Research Policy, Socio-Economic Review, Review of International Political Economy and Cambridge Journal of Economics. He received several academic awards, including the William Kapp Prize (awarded by the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, EAEPE), the Egon Matzner Prize (awarded by the Technical University Vienna) and the Kurt Rothschild Prize (awarded by the Austrian Parliament). He also acts as a reviewer for a series of internationally recognised journals and has been the editor of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter (www.heterodoxnews.com) since 2013. Some of his third-party-funded work – e.g., his papers on the distribution of wealth in Austria or his analysis of the role of economic models in European fiscal governance – has been extensively covered by national and international media.
Website