Emerging Economies and Challenges to Sustainability: Theories, strategies, local realities

The rise of the emerging economies in the global economy represents a range of opportunities, but also challenges traditional global power balances and development paradigms. How are we to conceptualise sustainable development in the global race for economic prosperity? How can we combine sustainability with continued economic growth? The book sets out to bridge the scholarship on the role of emerging economies with that of sustainable development. This theme is explored through interdisciplinary approaches to development theory and development strategies, based on case studies from East and South Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The book investigates if and how the development strategies of emerging economies challenge traditional development theory and sustainability discourses. It discusses the sustainability of development and growth strategies in emerging economies with a focus on three areas: natural resources; energy and consumption; poverty reduction and social policies. It assesses the applicability of sustainability in a world where the global economy is growing at an astounding rate and explores questions such as: How does "the rise of the rest" challenge conventional development theories and sustainability discourses? What characterises the development strategies of selected emerging economies, and what challenges are these posing for global sustainable development? How can case studies from specific emerging economies shed light on the global challenges, dilemmas and paradoxes of the relationship between socio-economic improvements and environmental degradation? Bringing together contributions from highly qualified researchers with fresh perspectives of younger scholars, this book is of great interest to researchers and postgraduates with an interest in the role of emerging economies in transforming and challenging traditional understandings of sustainability.