BOOK

MIT Press (2024)

Charles Hayes, Executive Managing Director, Asia & Partner, IDEO “From drones on African wildlife reserves to music sharing in the Middle East to pornography as education in India, this book provides context and direction for business leaders, digital creators, policymakers, and anyone else looking to realize a better future—a future that both benefits and is benefited by the Global South…Arora is at the top of my list when it comes to making sense of how to navigate many of these potential futures.”

Don Norman, Author of Design of Everyday things “Payal Arora’s brilliant book turns standard beliefs upside-down. Many people hold pessimistic views about the digital world, but not the youth outside of western culture: they find it uplifting and powerful.”

Arundhati Bhattacharya , Chairperson & CEO, Salesforce India ‘This book brings a fresh wave of optimism towards all things digital. I think the Global South, where most of the world’s youth resides, will provide the direction to how technology will emerge and shape the mankind’s future. Payal has done an excellent job in giving us a glimpse of a new digital order which is full of hope.’

BOOK

Amsterdam University Press (2023)

“To bring a world of just and equitable work into being, we need truly inclusive visions and strategies. This powerful book deploys a feminist lens to do just that from a diverse range of perspectives.” Prof. Mark Graham, Professor at Oxford Internet Institute and Founder of Fairwork foundation

“For over a century, feminism has fought for women’s rightful, equal place in economies and societies. This thoughtfully conceived, keenly perceptive, and accessibly written book continues the quest, capturing the modern-day struggle of women’s working lives in a digital world. A must-read for anyone interested in promoting more equitable and inclusive labour markets — today and in the future.” Sabina Dewan, President & Executive Director, JustJobs Network.

BOOK

Harvard University Press (2019)

A digital anthropologist examines the online lives of millions of people in China, India, Brazil, and across the Middle East―home to most of the world’s internet users―and discovers that what they are doing is not what we imagine. New-media pundits obsess over online privacy and security, cyberbullying, and revenge porn, but do these things really matter in most of the world? The Next Billion Users reveals that many assumptions about internet use in developing countries are wrong. Through extensive fieldwork, Arora demonstrates that the global poor are far from virtuous utilitarians who mainly go online to study, find jobs, and obtain health information. She reveals habits of use bound to intrigue everyone from casual internet users to developers of global digital platforms to organizations seeking to reach the next billion internet users.