Search results for ""author jeffrey james""

This book analyzes the use of the mobile Internet against the background of gender bias and Covid-19, currently two of the most important and pressing problems of the Global South. The book argues that the degree of benefits from this new technology depends heavily on the way it is actually used and that most new technologies are developed for the conditions prevailing in rich countries, where they tend to be quite easily adopted and used. In the Global South, by contrast, a paucity of digital skills and other factors make the potentially valuable benefits from the Internet much more difficult to derive. Using empirical data recently provided by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), the book examines the existence and extent of the digital divide between males and females in mobile Internet use, which constitutes a new form of divide. It sheds light on the acute difficulty for first-time mobile Internet users in the Global South, and especially Sub-Saharan Africa, to learn the digital skills that are needed to use the said technology effectively, with a special focus on how these users acquire the required knowledge, without having undergone the process of learning by doing. The book further discusses the determinants of digital skills in the Global South, as well as major factors underlying the extent to which different users actually benefit from the mobile Internet, such as gender, location, age, and education. Finally, it investigates how womens' use of the Internet has been altered by the pandemic in the Global South.This book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of development economics and development studies, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the impact of gender bias and Covid-19 on mobile internet use in the Global South.

Read more less

Few English monarchs had to fight harder for the right to rule than King Edward IV – Shakespeare’s glorious son of York. Cast in the Plantagenet mould, over six feet tall, he was a naturally charismatic leader. Edward had the knack of seizing the initiative and winning battles and is free from the unflattering characterisations that plagued his brother, Richard III, having been portrayed as a good-looking and formidable military tactician. Described sometimes as reckless and profligate, all sources remark on his personal bravery. In the eleven years between 1460 and 1471 he fought five major battles in the Wars of the Roses. Three of them – Towton, Barnet and Tewkesbury – rank among the most decisive of the medieval period. This book covers Edward’s family background, the Yorkist takeover and the drift to war. It charts the tensions created by the controversial Woodville marriage and Edward’s deposition by the Earl of Warwick and subsequent exile. The return of the king brought with it more battles and Edward’s decisive campaigns against Warwick and Margaret of Anjou. Finally, Edward’s sudden death heralded the demise of the House of York and the eventual triumph of the Tudors. This is the history of Edward IV’s struggle to gain –and regain – the crown during a period of sustained dynastic turmoil.

Read more less

This significant book presents an original examination of the theoretical and empirical interactions between globalization, technology and poverty. Jeffrey James studies the effect of information technology on patterns of globalization and explores how such patterns can be altered to reduce the growing global divide between rich and poor nations.The author first illustrates how the impact of information technology on globalization can be conceptualized in terms of transactions costs, product proliferation and mechanisms of cumulative causation. He finds that globalization tends to benefit a relatively small group of rich individuals, firms and countries. Consequently he suggests policy measures through which information technology can be used to lessen, rather than exacerbate, the digital divide. He goes on to argue that even if the proposed measures are reasonably successful, considerable attention will still need to be paid to conventional technologies and, in particular, to the promotion of technologies that will benefit the poorest groups in the developing nations. Finally, the author looks in detail at technology policy in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which has profited least from the benefits provided by new technologies such as email and the internet.Technology, Globalization and Poverty will be essential reading for academics interested in technological change, economic development, and the relationship between the two. Policymakers in both developed and developing countries will also draw great value from this work.

Read more less

According to many observers, the global digital divide - the extent to which information technology is benefiting developed as opposed to developing countries - has already established itself as the single most pervasive theme of the twenty-first century. The purpose of this book is to explore some of the ways in which this divide can be overcome both within and between nations. Employing a rigorous analytical framework, the author bases his analysis on the concept of international technological dualism. He argues that one possible solution to the problem is the availability of affordable technologies, such as low-cost computers, which are specifically designed for the income levels and socio-economic conditions of developing countries. He also emphasises that the most important aim of any policy measure should be to provide universal access to information technologies, rather than individual ownership. Depending on whether or not this divide can be bridged will, to a large degree, determine whether developing countries are able to attain higher levels of productivity, prosperity and global integration.Development economists, international policymakers and NGOs will all welcome the book's emphasis on various low cost technologies and their application in communal settings in the developing world. The non-technical nature of this volume will also make it accessible to a broader audience who wish to understand ways of alleviating this critical problem which has the potential to become even more acute as new and ever more complex technologies emerge.

Read more less