Is there a limit to technological advancements? Are technological advancements creating a more equal and fair world? Starting from influential thinkers driving a never-ending evaluation of development discourse - incorporating theories of modernisation, endogenous growth, globalisation, neoliberalism and several others - Seung-Jin Baek answers these questions and sets out practical steps to create societies that are more equal in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This book explores why Western-centred development strategies are unlikely to bring about similar developmental paths and outcomes in developing economies. By theoretically and empirically assessing the Technology-Development-Inequality nexus, Baek explores why a distorted developmental path has been observed in recent years, with high income countries being associated with rising inequality. This is important reading for all those seeking to understand international development in a twenty-first century context.

This book investigates the relationship between sustainable development and structural transformation within international development policy. On the one hand, sustainable development is promoted as a multi-dimensional concept for achieving environmentally and socially responsible change. On the other hand, structural transformation refers to a sustained period of growth in living standards and incomes that brings sectoral change. For some, these two objectives seem at odds with each other, but this book argues that incorporating environmental initiatives into structural transformation goals in lower-income countries actually results in better results than strategies prioritising economic growth. Drawing on extensive structural equation modelling and original analysis, the book presents an innovative inclusive sustainable development framework to demonstrate the benefits of a more integrated approach to development planning, aiming for structural transformation in line with inclusive sustainable development principles. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of global development, and to policymakers within government and development organizations.

Is there a limit to technological advancements? Are technological advancements creating a more equal and fair world? Starting from influential thinkers driving a never-ending evaluation of development discourse - incorporating theories of modernisation, endogenous growth, globalisation, neoliberalism and several others - Seung-Jin Baek answers these questions and sets out practical steps to create societies that are more equal in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This book explores why Western-centred development strategies are unlikely to bring about similar developmental paths and outcomes in developing economies. By theoretically and empirically assessing the Technology-Development-Inequality nexus, Baek explores why a distorted developmental path has been observed in recent years, with high income countries being associated with rising inequality. This is important reading for all those seeking to understand international development in a twenty-first century context.