Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the

Oxford Internet Institute The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multi-disciplinary department of social and computer science dedicated to the study of information, communication, and technology, and is part of the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford ...

, University of Oxford. He is also a senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, an associate member of the Department of Sociology, Oxford and a former Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, London. Lehdonvirta is an economic sociologist, whose research draws on theories and approaches from

economic sociology Economic sociology is the study of the social cause and effect of various economic phenomena. The field can be broadly divided into a classical period and a contemporary one, known as "new economic sociology". The classical period was concerned ...

, new

institutional economics Institutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the Sociocultural evolution, evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping Economy, economic Human behavior, behavior. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instin ...

, labour sociology, and science and technology studies. His research focuses on digital technologies—such as apps, platforms, and marketplaces—are governed, how they shape the organisation of

economic activities Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

, and the resulting implications for workers, consumers, businesses, and policy.

Research

Lehdonvirta is the principal investigator of iLabour, a major research project on online freelancing and the gig economy, funded by the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

. He also leads research projects on online labour markets' effects in rural areas and crowd workers' skill development. His other recent research takes a critical look at

Bitcoin Bitcoin ( abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...

and

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...

. His previous research on virtual goods, virtual consumption and digital games is summarised in 'Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis", co-authored with

Edward Castronova Edward "Ted" Castronova is a professor of media at Indiana University Bloomington. He is known in particular for his work on the economies of synthetic worlds. Biography Castronova obtained a BS in international affairs from Georgetown University ...

, and published by MIT Press.

Policy work

Lehdonvirta has advised companies, policy makers, and international organisations in Europe, the United States and Japan. He is a member of the European Commission's Expert Group on the Online Platform Economy, which supports the Commission in monitoring the evolution of the online platform economy for evidence-based and problem-focused policymaking and the High-Level Group on Digital Transmission and EU Labour markets, which provides analysis and advice to the Commission, and explores policy options.

Education

Lehdonvirta holds a PhD in Economic Sociology from the

University of Turku sv, Åbo universitet , latin_name = Universitas Aboensis , image_name = University of Turku.svg , motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle'' , established = 1920 , type ...

(2009) and a MSc from the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; fi, Teknillinen korkeakoulu; sv, Tekniska högskolan) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the metropolitan area of Greater Helsinki. The university was founded in ...

(2005). Previously he worked at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

, and the

Helsinki Institute for Information Technology Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT ( fi, Tietotekniikan tutkimuslaitos HIIT, sv, Forskningsinstitutet för informationsteknologi HIIT) is a joint research unit of two leading research universities in Helsinki, Finland, the Universi ...

. Before his academic career, he worked as a game programmer for Jippii Mobile Entertainment Oy.

Published works

Academic articles

* Lehdonvirta, V. (2018
"Flexibility in the Gig Economy: Managing Time on Three Online Piecework Platforms.
''New Technology, Work & Employment'': 33 (1) 13-29. * Ogembo, D. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2020
"Taxing Earnings from the Platform Economy: An EU Digital Single Window for Income Data?"
''British Tax Review'' 0201): 82-101. * Braesemann, F., Lehdonvirta, V., and Kässi, O. (2020
"ICTs and the Urban-Rural Divide: Can Online Labour Platforms Bridge the Gap?"
''Information, Communication & Society''. * Vidan, G. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2019
"Mine the gap: Bitcoin and the maintenance of trustlessness."
''New Media & Society'' 21(1): 42-59. * Lehdonvirta, V., Kässi, O., Hjorth, I., Barnard, H., and Graham, M. (2019
"The Global Platform Economy: A New Offshoring Institution Enabling Emerging-Economy Microproviders."
''Journal of Management'' 45(2): 567-599''.'' * Lee, S., and Lehdonvirta, V., (2020
"New Digital Safety Net or Just More ‘Friendfunding’? Institutional Analysis of Medical Crowdfunding in the United States."
''Information, Communication & Society.'' * Wood, A. J. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2021
"Antagonism beyond employment: how the ‘subordinated agency’ of labour platforms generates conflict in the remote gig economy."
''Socio-Economic Review.'' * Kässi, O, and V Lehdonvirta. (2022
"Do Microcredentials Help New Workers Enter the Market? Evidence from an Online Labor Platform."
''Journal of Human Resources.''

Books

''Cloud Empires: How digital platforms are overtaking the state and how we can regain control''.
(2022) ISBN 9780262047227
Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis.
(2014), With Edward Castronova ISBN 0262535068

References

Living people Economic sociologists Finnish sociologists People associated with the University of Oxford Year of birth missing (living people) Finnish expatriates in England European Research Council grantees {{Finland-sociologist-stub