Sustainable Development Goals, degrowth and emergent technologies: insights from ethnographic drone interventions in the Global South

Jan Vang, Helene Balslev Clausen and Oscar Bowen Schofield

Chapter 15 in Handbook of Grand Challenges in Global Production and Innovation Networks, 2025, pp 289-305 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter critically examines the role of emerging technologies, particularly drones, in shaping sustainable agricultural practices among coffee suppliers in the Global South (in this study, in Uganda). Using ethnographic intervention-based research, the study co-creates drone-based technologies with smallholder farmers and agricultural experts to explore whether drones will lead to degrowth strategies. Findings reveal a complex negotiated compromise between multiple conflicting logics – including survival, modernization, and sustainability – complicating the realization of purely degrowth-oriented outcomes, challenging the assumption that technologies inherently support degrowth or growth. The findings illustrate that emerging technologies have the potential to support degrowth strategies.

Keywords: SDGs; Degrowth; Emergent technologies; Drone; Ethnographic intervention; Global South (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035346509
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