Learning, Digital Skills, and the Global South

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.