Professor Robin Mansell

Robin Mansell BA (Hons) Psychology, University of Manitoba 1974; MSc Social Psychology London - LSE 1976; MA Communication 1980, PhD Communication 1984, Simon Fraser University, Canada.

I joined the LSE in 2001 as Professor of New Media and the Internet. From 2006 to 2009 I was Head of the Department of Media and Communications. From September 2009 I am Director of Graduate Studies, overseeing the Master’s Programmes in the Department. I also convene and teach courses in the department at the Masters and PhD level.

Research Profile

My research is concerned with the social, economic and policy issues associated with information and communication technologies. My research examines the integration of new technologies into society, interactions between engineering design and the structure of markets, and sources of regulatory effectiveness and failure. I bring the perspectives of both the political economy of media and communication and the sociology of developments in these areas to my work. I have a special interest in research concerning the governance of new technologies and social networks, and the relationships between technological innovation, social transformation and the causes and consequences of social inequality.
My research and teaching benefit from earlier work with the OECD Information, Computers and Communication Policy secretariat in Paris, 1986-87, and ongoing work with UN and other agencies concerned with the development of global networks and electronic services. I serve as a consultant to ministries of governments and to leading companies in the information and communication technology field.

Research and Other Commitments

My commitments include:

Past President, 2008-2010 of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) after serving for four years as President. See IAMCR website at www.iamcr.org for information. The next IAMCR conference will be hosted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, 21-24 July 2009.
Honorary Professor at the LINK Centre, Wits Graduate School of Public & Development Management, South Africa. The LINK Centre is the leading research and training body in the field of information and communications technology (ICT) policy, regulation and management in Southern Africa. LINK focuses on capacity building in the public sector and development arenas through quality training, applied research and consultancy services necessary to maximise the benefits of the Information Society and the Knowledge Economy.
Honorary Professor at SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex, a world leader in research, consultancy and teaching in science, technology and innovation policy. I was Professor of Information and Communication Technology Policy at SPRU, 1988-2000, where I directed the Information, Networks & Knowledge (INK) research centre. I also held posts at SPRU as Research Director and Director of Graduate Studies.
Member of Promotions Board of IDS (Institute of Development Studies), Sussex where I formerly served as a Trustee (1999-2009). IDS is one of the world's leading organisations for research, teaching and communications on international development.
Elected academic Governor of the LSE, serving from 2005.
Scientific Director of the annual EUROCPR (Communication Policy Research) conference from 2009, see http://www.encip.org/.

Current Research Interests

My core research interest focuses on how and why people communicate with each other, especially when their relationships are mediated by the use of information and communication technologies. I have a special interest in the relationships between institutional and micro-level change and in the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion. My training has been in several social science disciplines. I completed an MSc in Social Psychology in 1976 at the LSE and studied Clinical Psychology at the undergraduate level. As a result of this background, I am a strong advocate of interdisciplinary research and teaching which builds on the strengths of disciplinary inquiry. My later training was in economics and political science which fostered my interest in the Political Economy of Media and Communication.

My recent research involves examinations of the interfaces between on- and off-line experience and the consequences of the spread of the Internet for all stakeholders in society, including individuals, firms, civil society organisations, and governments.

My principal areas of research and policy-related work include:

Social and organisational transformation and new technologies - focusing mainly on newer media and communications technologies and information systems and the way they become embedded within and across organisations.
Information and communication policy and regulation - including telecommunications and the Internet.
Knowledge networks and innovation systems - including the components of innovation systems and the learning processes that give rise to the design and implementation of electronic service applications in business and government and their use by civil society organizations.
Information and communication technologies, development and inequality - including critical assessments of policy and strategy, and governance.

Academic Publications

Selected articles can be freely downloaded from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk (search for 'Mansell').

Books

	The Information Society (Critical Concepts in Sociology), (editor and author of Introductions to each of four volumes). Routledge, 2009. http://www.routledge.com/books/The-Information-Society-isbn9780415443081
	The Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies (lead editor with C. Avgerou, D. Quah, R. Silverstone) Oxford University Press, 2007. A comprehensive collection of 25 new articles organised around the themes: 1) The Knowledge Economy and ICTs; 2) Organizational Dynamics, Strategy, Design and ICTs; 3) Governance, Democracy and ICTs; and 4) Culture, Community, and New Media Literacies. Available through all good bookshops, or direct from Oxford University Press at: http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199266234
	Trust and Crime in Information Societies (with Brian S. Collins), Edward Elgar Publishers, 2005. Now available in paperback. This book is an edited collection of papers prepared for the UK Government's Foresight Project on Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention.
	Networking Knowledge for Information and Societies: Institutions and Intervention (with Rohan Samarajiva and Amy Mahan, eds/contributors), Delft University Press, 2002. This book was compiled in honour of William H. Melody, and analyses the problems of and prospects for information societies. It contains over 50 contributions from every region of the world. This book is now available online at http://www.lirne.net/resources/netknowledge/index.htm.
	Inside the Communication Revolution: Evolving Patterns of Social and Technical Interaction (ed/contributor R. Mansell), Oxford University Press, 2002, order hardback (£48.00); order paperback (£19.99). This book examines the mediation of social and technical relationships and the process of building capabilities through knowledge exchange through a series of case studies, all of which contain original empirical research and many of which focus on Internet developments. This book includes chapters by me and by Professor W E Steinmueller of SPRU, Sussex University, and many other SPRU contributors. A Spanish translation was published in 2004. And published as La revolución de la comunicación : modelos de interacción social y técnica, Alianza Editorial, Italy 2003.
	Mobilizing the Information Society: Strategies for Growth and Opportunity, Oxford University Press 2000 (with W. E. Steinmueller, SPRU) which examines many aspects of the new economy, order hardback (£75.00), paperback (£19.99) published in 2002 with endorsements by Manuel Castells (Professor of Sociology) and Paul A. David (Professor of Economics)
	Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development,1998 was prepared for the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development and published by Oxford University Press, 323 pages. Order from Oxford University Press (£17.99). I was senior editor and contributor with U. Wehn (Chinese translation: Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, January 1999). This book can also be downloaded at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/ink/knowledge.html . Short summaries are available in English, French and Spanish see: Knowledge Societies in a Nutshell
	Communication by Design: The Politics of Information and Communication Technologies edited by R. Mansell and R. Silverstone. Oxford University Press, 1996, order from Oxford University Press (£18.99 pbk.)
	The New Telecommunications in the Netherlands: Strategic Developments in Technologies and Markets, The Hague: Rathenau Institute (formerly Netherlands Office of Technology Assessment), 1995 (with A. Davies and W. Hulsink).
	Standards Innovation and Competitiveness: The Politics and Economics of Standards in Natural and Technical Environments, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1995 (editor and contributor with R. Hawkins and J. Skea). The Management of Information and Communication Technologies: Emerging patterns of control, London: ASLIB (Association of Library and Information Systems), 1994 (editor and contributor). The New Telecommunications: A Political Economy of Network Evolution, London: Sage, 1993. Republished as Le telecomunicazioni che cambiano: Innovazione technolgica ed economica delle reti Turin: Utet Libreria, 1996.

Current Research Projects

Open Philosophies for Associative Autopoetic Digital Ecosystems (OPAALS)

This is a European Commission Network of Excellence, led by Dr. Paolo Dini, Research Associate, Department of Media and Communications, in collaboration with Robin Mansell and others including Dr. Mary Darking and Dr. Evangelia Berdou, Visiting LSE Research Fellow. LSE’s Department of Media and Communications has been awarded €1.5m as part of a €9.1m project from the European Commission to lead an interdisciplinary research project into the philosophies behind digital ecosystems. From July 2006, this network is examining digital ecosystems. Digital Ecosystems are emerging as a novel approach to sustainable regional development driven by SMEs. The overarching aims of the OPAALS NoE are to build an interdisciplinary research community around Digital Ecosystems, and to develop an integrated theoretical foundation for Digital Ecosystems research. The main claim that OPAALS makes is that in order to achieve sustainable digital business ecosystems of SMEs and software components we need to understand the collaborative processes and ICTs that underpin the creation, formalisation, and sharing of knowledge in the form of business models, software infrastructure and new formal and semi-formal languages. See http://www.opaals.org/

Advancing knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship and innovation for growth and social well-being in Europe (AEGIS)

This is an Integrated Project, Theme 8 Socio-economic Science and Humanities, funded by the European Commission. I am a named expert with the team from Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), University of Sussex collaborating with Professor W. Edward Steinmueller, (2008-10).

AEGIS examines the effects of newly created knowledge converted by knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship into commercially useful applications on economic growth and social well-being. New technologies, products, and services can help to make the production processes more efficient, potentially leading to increased capital intensity, labour-productivity, and per-capita income. They can also result in new consumption opportunities in the form of new goods and services offered for final consumption. The consequences for economic growth of these applications of new knowledge are well researched, the effects of increased knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship on social well-being are less clear. AEGIS will identify some of the dangers associated with the emerging dominance of a knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial culture, recognizing that all citizens will not be able to participate and that the vision of greater participation in knowledge-based activities throughout society results in new classes of consumption and consumer behaviour as well as new social modalities. The focus will be on how education and training processes will need to evolve to meet the challenge of potential exclusion.

EDS-LSE Innovation Research Programme

I am co-Director with Professors John van Reenan (Economics) and Patrick Dunleavy (Government) of this programme which is a collaboration between EDS and LSE. The contribution of the Media and Communications Department to this programme is on issues concerning the Evolution of an online high-bandwidth network: the MARCEL Observatory. This is the largest research component. From October 2005 Frédérik Lesage, supervised by Robin Mansell with input from Don Foresta, independent consultant, is funded to undertake his PhD research in this area.

This project involves an ethnographic study of the creation and development of an innovative and globally extensive, online, high-bandwidth network of artists, scientists, educationalists and industry (MARCEL - Multimedia Art Research Centres and Electronic Laboratories). MARCEL's aim is to develop new forms of interaction, creativity and pedagogy. The study will examine the ways in which a new organisational form devoted to innovation and creativity online emerges and becomes (or does not become) effective. The results and findings will be useful to industry and policy-makers for the development of other initiatives using very high-bandwidth means of communication. See http://www.mmmarcel.org/

Completed Research Projects

Countering Terrorism in Public Places

I was Director to January 2007 of a joint EPSRC, ESRC, AHRC research programme on Countering Terrorism in Public Places, see http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchFunding/Programmes/Cross-EPSRCActivities/CrimeSecurityAndTerrorism/CounteringTerrorism.htm. Three projects have been funded under this programme.

Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE)

This was an integrated project in the Information Society Technologies thematic priority of the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission. It involves twenty industrial and academic partners from nine European countries. Started in November 2003, the project will be completed in November 2006. It aims to provide Europe with a recognised advantage in innovating software application development by its software producing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to achieve greater technology adoption by SMEs in general.

Working with the Scientific Coordinator, Dr Paolo Dini, the goal was to develop a strategy for sustainable innovation based on open source software and technology adoption that can influence policy making at regional and European levels. I am providing a critical perspective on the socio-economic context and value systems upon which business models and technology adoption strategies are based and contributions to the regulatory and legal aspects of the DBE project. See www.digital-ecosystem.org/ .

Telecom Demand: Measures for Improving Affordability

Starting in 2005 and led by Robin Mansell and Claire Milne, Visiting Researcher, with Sebastian Ureta, PhD candidate in Media and Communications and Sangeeth Varghese, TRIUM MBA candidate, this project is focusing on developing a better understanding of affordability as the key to understanding telecom demand which, in turn, is central to sound business cases for investment and the achievement of network development in developing countries. This project is the first stage in producing a toolkit for improving telecom affordability alongside improvements in accessibility. The project is in part a scoping study, and will produce plans for completing the toolkit as well as some initial elements of the toolkit. This project is being undertaken for LIRNE.NET's Preparing for WSIS: ICT Research and Dissemination Programme, funded by IDRC, Canada. The Telecom Demand project is one of the contributions made by the Department of Media and Communications to LIRNE.Net (Learning Initiatives for Reforms on Network Economies)

Foresight Project on Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention

I served as expert consultant, together with Brian Collins (Cranfield University) to the Office of Science and Technology Foresight Project on Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention. This work addressed the likelihood and social consequences of the spread of new technologies that have the capacity to support measures to prevent crime and to provide those who seek to commit crime with new means of doing so. Developments in technologies such as agent-based computing are raising profoundly important concerns with respect to the rights and responsibilities of citizens, privacy and security. Our synthesis of state-of-the-art research was published on 10 June 2004. For further details, see www.foresight.gov.uk .

Edward Elgar Publishers has published a revised collection of the papers edited by Robin Mansell and Brian S Collins, Trust and Crime in Information Societies, 2005. A paperback edition is forthcoming February 2007.

E-commerce in Developing Countries

Based on research on e-marketplaces in the garments and horticulture sectors and on the experiences of firms in Bangladesh, Kenya and South Africa, this study examines the expectations and assumptions behind the drive to invest in B2B e-commerce. It investigates what actually happens in Internet-based e-marketplaces and how developing country firms use the Internet for business. The overall finding is that the main effect of B2B e-commerce is to enhance the relationships between existing trading partners. It does little to help forge ongoing relationships with new firms. There is a clear message for policy makers and practitioners - understanding how international trade is organised and how inter-firm relationships are developed is essential if the use of some types of B2B e-commerce is to assist producer firms in gaining more equitable access to international markets. The report summarises the results of research led jointly by The London School of Economics and the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex, and funded by the UK Department for International Development under its Globalisation and Poverty research programme.

The Reality of E-commerce with Developing Countries, by John Humphrey, Robin Mansell, Daniel Paré and Hubert Schmitz

To request a hard copy, email r.e.mansell@lse.ac.uk

Growth-Nodes in a Knowledge-based Europe (G-NIKE)

An EC Information Society Technologies (IST) 5th Framework project, led by Prof. Ramon O'Callahan, IN3, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya with participation by LSE, University of Tampere, University of Tilburg, and the European Institute for the Media, see http://www.uoc.edu/in3/gnike/ and http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka2/rmapsocioeco.html for more information. This project developed a 'strategic road map' for research under the 6th Framework Programme with a focus on the role and dynamics of emergent 'growth nodes' in Europe. Issues of sustainable growth, competition and cooperation, and social cohesion and equity were at the heart of this project which assessed the implications of the use of advanced information and communication technologies.

Socio-economic Trends Assessment for the digital Revolution (STAR)

My contribution was in the areas of critical assessments of e-commerce developments and of skills and capability accumulation for the information society (in close collaboration with SPRU). This was a project in the EC Information Society Technologies (IST) 5th Framework Programme, Key Action II. The project was led by Gabriella Cattaneo, Databank, Milan and the results of the first, second and third year's work on this year project can be viewed at http://www.databank.it/star/index_2.html .

Electronic Networks, Broadband and Policy

Report for the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit entitled 'The Economic Importance of Electronic Networks: Assessing the Micro-level Evidence Base'. The report reviews micro-level case studies on the impact of Electronic Networks on the UK Economy and is available on the Strategy Unit website at http://www.pm.gov.uk/files/pdf/LSE.pdf.

For the full report, Electronic Networks: Challenges for the Next Decade, published by the Strategy Unit, see http://www.strategy.gov.uk/downloads/su/en/00.htm .

Public Dimensions of the Knowledge-driven Economy

An OECD/CERI (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation) project directed by Prof. Dominique Foray. The LSE contribution is a case study of the UK emergency health care service as a complex knowledge-intensive system that has the potential to benefit from improved knowledge management supported by the application of new information and communication technologies. An interim case study report was completed at the end of March 2002.

The work was undertaken jointly by myself and Dr. Richard Curry, an independent consultant. The paper, is available online at http://www.oecd.org/edu/km/mappinginnovation and was cited in OECD (2004) Innovation in the Knowledge Economy: Implications for Education and Learning, OECD, Centre for Educational Research and Learning, Paris, p57.

Teaching

I serve as Director of Graduate Studies, overseeing the Master’s teaching in the Department of Media and Communications. I also co-lead the strand on the MSc in Media and Communications: Media and Communication Governance which starts in 2010-11. I teach a Master's course MC413 New Media, Information and Knowledge Systems. This half unit course runs in the Michaelmas Term and offers an introduction to perspectives on the social, organisational, and economic processes contributing to innovation in the new media area. Topics encompass perspectives on innovation systems, e-services for citizens, e-business services, Internet governance, intellectual property rights, policy and regulation, the Internet and the economy, and new media and social equity issues. I also provide lectures for MC408 and MC418 – Theories and Concepts in Media and Communications.

I contribute to the PhD Programme in Media and Communications, co-leading compulsory seminars for first year students and for second and third year students (MC500). Our programme has some 35 students and a target annual intake of 6 new students each year.

From 2009 I am supervising 6 PhD students at the LSE. Applicants with backgrounds in social science disciplines including communication or media studies, economics, political science, and sociology are encouraged to apply. Prospective applicants can propose research topics to be investigated from a political economy or sociological perspective. Recent topics of current and former LSE students are:

Completed at LSE since 2001 under my supervision:

Olugbenga Adesida (Awarded 2005) Intermediating institutions and the diffusion of complex technological innovations: The case of electronic commerce
Philippe Ross (Awarded 2005) Mediation in new media production: representation and involvement of audiences/users at NESTA Futurelab
Evangelia Berdou (Awarded 2007) Managing the bazaar: commercialization and peripheral participation in mature, community-led free/open source software projects
Dorothea Kleine (Awarded 2007) Empowerment and the limits of choice: Microentrepreneurs, information and communication technologies and state policies in Chile
Shenja Vandergraaf (Pass subject to minor corrections June 2009) Designing for Mod Development: User creativity as product development strategy on the firm-hosted 3D software platform
David Brake (Pass subject to minor corrections June 2009) ‘As if nobody’s reading’: The imagined audience and socio-technical biases in personal blogging practice in the UK
Yukie Hori (Submitted May 2009) Social networks in the network society: New dynamics of networking among women’s organizations in Asia
Helena Johansen (Submitted May 2009) Re-Conceptualising Party-Centred Politics in Terms of Market: A Relationship Marketing Approach
Alison Gillwald, (Submitted May 2009) Wireless: a decade of telecommunications reform in South Africa, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand
Frederik Lesage (Submitted June 2009) Networks for art work: An analysis of artistic creative engagements with new media standards

PhD Research in Progress:

Nina Blackett standards, information and long term pain management
Iginio Gagliardone, ICTs, Policy and Practice - Ethiopia
Indrek Ibrus supervised jointly with S. Livingstone – innovation systems, remediation and mobile phones
Sarah Kamal, joint with DESTIN – media use in Afghanistan
Suzanne Stein, Digital Games, markets and transformation
Elizabeth Van Couvering web search engines, political economy

Additional topics of interest include:

Civil society organisations and the use of new media
Skills and software development (particularly open source movement)
Electronic commerce; e-government and related services development
Internet services and on/off-line environments
Policy and regulation for convergent technologies - global, European, national
Telecommunication reform and capabilities in developing countries
ICTs and their use in developing countries

CV

Click here to see Robin Mansell's CV

Contact Details

Professor Robin Mansell
Room S107
Department of Media and Communications
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7955 6380
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7955 7248
Email: r.e.mansell@lse.ac.uk

Past President IAMCR, 2008-2010, see www.iamcr.org

If you are coming to the LSE, you will find my office on the first floor of St. Clements Building. For details, click here.

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This page was last updated on 14 January 2010