Digitalisation towards Sustainable Development

Comparative International Perspectives
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-26414-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 390 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development

Digitalisation towards Sustainable Development brings together contributions from researchers across Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia to examine one of the defining questions of contemporary global policy: how does digital transformation impact sustainable development and how it can be governed in the public interest?

Drawing on empirical research conducted within the EU Horizon-funded PRODIGEES project, the volume offers a genuinely comparative perspective, contrasting experiences from the European Union with those of Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Africa. It argues that digitalisation is neither an automatic pathway to sustainability nor an inevitable source of harm, but a contested transformation process whose outcomes depend on governance arrangements, institutional capacities, and the distribution of power between states, firms, and communities. Organised around four thematic parts – framing the digital turn, governing digitalisation, reshaping sectoral pathways, and contesting digital orders – the volume covers artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure, platform economies, central bank digital currencies, environmental monitoring, space technology partnerships, disinformation, and cultural production.

Directly engaged with policy debates around the UN Global Digital Compact, the G20 digital agenda, and the SDGs, the book is essential reading for postgraduate students, researchers, and policy professionals working at the intersection of digital governance, sustainable development, and global affairs.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core

Autoren/Hrsg.

Reiners, Wulf

Lucatello, Simone

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Künstliche Intelligenz
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Nachhaltigkeit
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Entwicklungsökonomie & Emerging Markets
• Technische Wissenschaften Umwelttechnik | Umwelttechnologie Umwelttechnik
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umwelttechnik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Digitalisation Towards Sustainable Development – An Introduction Part I – Framing the Digital Turn: Sovereignty, Ethics, and Inclusion 2. Sovereign or Sustainable? The European Union's Leitmotif of Digital Transformation  3. Artificial Intelligence and Social Sustainability: Ethical Principles for AI Technologies as Solutions for Reducing Poverty and Inequality? 4. Digital Divide as Governance Failure: Coordination Challenges Across Digital Infrastructure, Digital Utilisation, and Digital Innovation Part II – Governing Digitalisation: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Innovation 5. Regulatory Power in Digital Markets: The EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Its Influence on Ex-Ante Competition Policy in the Global South. The Brussels Effect Reconsidered 6. Synergising Digital Public Infrastructure, Digital Public Goods and Digital Commons for Sustainable Development – Experiences from Brazil, the EU and India 7. Governing the Digital Turn in Brazil: How Civil Servants Understand the Link Between Digitalisation and Sustainability 8. The Digital Money Trilemma: Sovereignty, Stability, and Integration in Cross-Border CBDCs 9. Navigating the Path to Deeper Financial Inclusion: The Role of CBDCs Amid Structural Challenges and the Digital Divide in Indonesia Part III – Reshaping Sectoral Pathways: Climate, Space, and Natural Resources  10. Environmental Sustainability and Digitalisation: Negative Impacts and Risks in a Comparative International Perspective 11. Can Digitalisation and Citizen Science Improve Water Governance in Communities? A Case Study in Cape Town, South Africa 12. Promises and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence to Combat Climate Change  13. From Access to Agency: Digitalisation and Space Technology Partnerships Between Europe and Emerging Economies for Sustainable Development Part IV – Contesting Digital Orders: Democracy, Science, and Cultural Production 14. Populism, Information Pollution, and Democratic Backsliding: The Case of Brazil 15. Negotiating Power Asymmetries in Science: EU-Funded Global Research Collaboration 16. Remaining Hybrid: Cultural Production and Digitalisation. The Case of Independent Stage Artists in Mexico During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic 17. Governing Digitalisation for Sustainable Development: Lessons, Tensions, and a Future Agenda

Über Autor(innen)

Wulf Reiners is a senior researcher and head of the Managing Global Governance (MGG) programme at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). From 2020 to 2025, he served as academic coordinator of the EU Horizon project PRODIGEES. He holds a PhD in political science. His research focuses on global governance, rising powers, the external action and institutions of the EU, and digitalisation.

Simone Lucatello is a senior researcher and director of research at Instituto Mora in Mexico City. His research focuses on climate change, disaster risk management, environmental governance and international development. He has collaborated with various programmes of the UN and the EU, and is a leading author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, AR7). He holds a PhD in analysis and governance of sustainable development from the International University of Venice, Italy.