Inequality and Development Challenges

This series of books brings together results of an extensive research programme on aspects of the national systems of innovation (NSI) in the five BRICS countries ― Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. It provides a comprehensive and comparative examination of the challenges and opportunities faced by these dynamic and emerging economies. In discussing the impact of innovation with respect to economic, geopolitical, socio-cultural, institutional, and technological systems, it reveals the possibilities of new development paradigms for equitable and sustainable growth.

This volume analyses the co-evolution of inequality and NSI across the BRICS economies. It reveals the multi-dimensional character of inequality, in going beyond its income aspect to include assets, access to basic services, infrastructure, knowledge, race, gender, ethnicity and geographic location. In advancing valuable policy recommendations, the book argues that inequalities must be factored in development strategies given that benefits of innovation are not automatically distributed equally. Original and detailed data, together with expert analyses on wide-ranging issues, make this book an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars in economics, development studies and political science, in addition to policy-makers and development practitioners interested in the BRICS countries.

Maria Clara Couto Soares is Senior Researcher, Research Network on Local Productive and Innovative Systems-RedeSist, Institute of Economics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Mario Scerri is Professor of Economics, Tshwane University of Technology, and Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI), South Africa.

Rasigan Maharajh is Chief Director, Institute for Economic Research on Innovation, Faculty of Economics and Finance, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa.