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A Fork in the Road -- The Rise and Fall of the Mass Production Economy -- The Bumpy Ride to Social Decay -- The Collapse of Environmental Sustainability -- Mass Production Runs out of Steam -- Information and Communication Technologies: The Motor of the New Paradigm -- Transformative Change in Practice -- What's to be Done? -- Who Will Do It? Making Change Happen.

Globalization is characterised by persistent poverty and growing inequality. Conventional wisdom has it that this global poverty is residual - as globalization deepens, the poor will be lifted out of destitution. The policies of the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO echo this belief and push developing countries ever deeper into the global economy. Globalization, Poverty and Inequality provides an alternative viewpoint. It argues that for many - particularly for those living in Latin America, Asia and Central Europe - poverty and globalization are relational. It is the very workings of the global system which condemn many to poverty. In particular the mobility of investment, and the large pool of increasingly skilled workers in China and other parts of Asia, are driving down global wages. This poses challenges for policy makers in firms and countries throughout the world. It also challenges the very sustainability of globalisation itself. Are we about to witness the implosion of globalisation, as occurred between 1913 and 1950? Using a variety of theoretical frameworks and drawing on a vast amount of original research, this book will be an invaluable resource for all students of globalization and its effects. Raphael Kaplinskyis Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex

What can developing countries learn from the phenomenal success of Japanese manufacturing? Not the application of capital-intensive imported automation technologies, but instead the use of a radically new set of management techniques. These revolutionise the organisation of work, require different factory layouts, alter the scheduling of production through the factory and change the relationship with suppliers and customers

ABSTRACTDespite rapid economic growth, the numbers living in absolute poverty in Africa have grown. China's rapidly expanding presence in Africa is widely considered to be a prime source of this unequalization. However, at the same time, its presence also supports countervailing and unrecognized processes of equalization, although this varies by country, class, gender and age grouping. China has the capacity to help Africa move to a more sustainable and less unequal growth path by providing low‐cost consumer and capital goods, new market opportunities which can be accessed by small‐scale producers and new, more appropriate capital goods. Taking advantage of the China‐induced commodities price boom to promote more equal patterns of growth will depend on the capacity of African actors to promote linkages effectively. The extent to which Africa is able to take advantage of opportunities opened up by China to move to a new, more inclusive growth path will largely be determined by political developments in Africa. But these political dynamics are not independent of China's increasing economic and political footprint, both globally and in its direct relations with Africa.