Dr. Steve Rolf

I contribute to the ESRC Digit centre as a Research Fellow. I am responsible for examining the digital transformation of the global retail sector. I am particularly interested in:

• Understanding the digitalisation of work in retail multinationals
• Explaining the uneven uptake of digital technologies across firms and geographies in the sector
•  Updating and deploying classical labour process analysis in the context of digital labour processes
•  The geographical transformation of the retail sector as it relates to the rise of online shopping
•  Algorithmic governance and the new technologies shaping consumer preferences.

Background

Prior to joining Sussex, I was Research Associate at the University of Bristol’s School of Sociology, Policy and International Studies and Teaching Associate at Aston University’s Department of Sociology and Policy.

I have recently concluded an interdisciplinary research program entitled ‘China and the transformation of global capitalism’. This project has examined the structural transformations of the global political economy which enabled China’s rapid process of catch-up development since the late 1970s and the consequences, in turn, of the ‘rise of China’ for the multipolar and crisis-ridden global economy. A further focus has been on the social transformations and dislocations taking place within China, including detailed case studies of firms in the electronics and clothing sectors as well as industrial policy mechanisms aimed at upgrading the competitive capacities of Chinese industry in the context of global production networks (GPNs).

Research interests

• Digital economy
• Labour process
• Political economy
• Variegated capitalism