Development and underdevelopment: rethinking the shape of a globalizing world

This chapter makes the case for rethinking the nature and purpose of development. The conventional North-South spatial conception of development is challenged by the rapidly emerging economies of the Global South, reflected in growing South-South cooperation. In addition, the globalization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) aids business development in the South by ensuring that more citizens can participate in the global network society. All of this is contributing to more complex patterns of global poverty and inequality, and blurring patterns of development and underdevelopment. While environmental decline raises major difficulties for the economic growth model that has underpinned development in the post-war period.