Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.^[1] 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, new institutional economics, and political science. His research examines the socio-economic and political implications of new digital technologies.

Lehdonvirta is one of the world’s most cited authors on gig work and the platform economy.^[2] He was the principal investigator of iLabour,^[3] a major research project on online freelancing and the gig economy, funded by the European Research Council. He also led research projects on online labour markets' effects in rural areas^[4] and crowd workers'^[5] skill development. Lehdonvirta's research on platforms, marketplaces, and digital commerce is summarised in Cloud Empires: How Digital Platforms Are Overtaking the State and How We Can Regain Control, published by MIT Press and translated to Italian by Einaudi.^[6] The book was announced as a finalist for a 2023 PROSE Award by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).^[7]

Lehdonvirta's earlier research dealt with the history and politics of Bitcoin^[8] and blockchain.^[9] His research on virtual goods, virtual consumption and digital games is summarised in Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis, co-authored with Edward Castronova, published by MIT Press and translated to Japanese and Chinese.^[10]

Lehdonvirta's recent research focuses on the geopolitics of digital infrastructures, such as cloud data centres and GPUs.^[11]

Lehdonvirta has advised companies, policy makers, and international organisations in Europe, the United States and Japan. He was 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^[12] and the High-Level Group on Digital Transmission and EU Labour markets, which provides analysis and advice to the Commission, and explores policy options.

Lehdonvirta holds a PhD in Economic Sociology from the University of Turku (2009) and a MSc from the Helsinki University of Technology (2005). Previously he worked at the London School of Economics, the University of Tokyo, and the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. Before his academic career, he worked as a game programmer for Jippii.