With our modern world relying more and more on internet-based technologies, this timely book takes a renewed look at the ever-increasing digital divide between developing and more technologically advanced countries and the resulting impacts on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Jeffrey James conducts a methodological and conceptual review of the patterns and shortfalls arising from the technological divide between countries, recommending a more proactive response for countries that are struggling to minimise the gap. He juxtaposes the current usage of technology coupled with the prohibitive cost of accessing the internet in the Global South against the cost of living in poverty, the lack of literacy, and learned digital skills. The book addresses these key issues and investigates the current gender disparity, offering solutions for implementing low-cost policies such as the recent successful launch of the inexpensive JioPhone handset.

Learning, Digital Skills, and the Global South is an excellent resource for scholars of development economics, innovation economics and information technology. It is also an invigorating read for policy makers in developing countries to make future decisions drawing on a wider variety of analytical frameworks and methods than is usually the case.

About the Author
Jeffrey James, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Tilburg University, the Netherlands

Reviews
'Policy makers should read this book. It is full of interesting and original insights into the digital divide between rich and poor countries, with a particular emphasis on gender differences. It sheds new light on the policy priorities essential for Southern countries to make effective use of the digital revolution.' -- Frances Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Development Economics, University of Oxford, UK
'Despite the rapid growth of the internet, digital divides remain a potent and intractable issue, reflecting how social inequalities are reproduced in cyberspace. This volume, by one of the world's leading authorities on digital divides, calls attention to the problem in the context of the global South. Rather than simplistic neoclassical prescriptions, which hold the market will magically cause the divide to disappear, James and foregrounds social relations such as poverty, gender and patriarchy. The result is a volume that insightfully guides readers through a thicket of topics, such as internet poverty, divide reversals, and the multifaceted nature of digital literacy.' -- Barney Warf, University of Kansas, USA
'Professor Jeffrey James brings his many years of research in the field of technology and development to this extraordinary book. Apart from a fresh look at the digital divide, he also connects masterfully the key aspects of digital technology and learning with crucial aspects of poverty and inequality. Ultimately the book offers a deep and critical analysis of multiple connections between the pervasive digital technology and human wellbeing from the perspective of the Global South. There is much to learn from his fresh insights.' -- Haider Khan, University of Denver, USA



Book Information
ISBN 9781035348558
Author Jeffrey James
Format Hardback
Page Count 144
Imprint Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Publisher Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd