The 40 per cent perspective: role of construction in developing countries

Hemanta Doloi

Chapter 14 in Research Companion to Advances in the Construction Industry in the Global South, 2026, pp 325-342 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: As the global population reached 8.1 billion in 2024, there is a pressing need to meet growing housing and infrastructure demands through innovative and sustainable practices that preserve natural resources. With 40 per cent of the world's population residing in rural areas, mostly in developing countries, there is an opportunity to target rural development as a means of countering unsustainable urban growth. The construction industry in these regions plays a crucial role in finding net-zero, sustainable solutions. The Smart Villages research programme at the University of Melbourne promotes a shared urban–rural development model, addressing the limitations of traditional development methods and contributing to climate change mitigation efforts. The initiative emphasises bottom-up development, incorporating indigenous knowledge, local skills and demographic data to ensure context-specific, community-aligned progress. Central to this approach are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and focus is put on scalable development and regional integration for economic and social growth in the rural communities.

Keywords: Smart Villages; Urban–rural development; SDGs; Sustainable development; Developing countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035349012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035349029.00021 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:24054_14

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().