With an emphasis on the European Union (EU), this research explores the intricate link between globalization, digitization, and sustainable development. Extant research highlights how globalization contributes to waste reduction and pollution reduction, making it a major force behind sustainable development. The potential for sustainable development has been further enhanced by the extraordinary interconnectedness and information interchange brought about by the digital revolution. This research uses the Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) as a theoretical framework to examine the complex interactions between globalization, digitization, and sustainable development. RDT elucidates the dynamics of resource exchange across borders, providing a nuanced understanding of how globalization influences sustainable resource dependency. Notably, we investigate the mediating role of digitalization in the relationship between globalization and sustainable resource dependency, seeking to deepen our comprehension of their combined impact on economic, environmental, and social sustainability within the EU context. Utilizing partial least squares Structural Equation Modeling for analysis, our original findings reveal significant insights. We find that digitalization has a noteworthy influence on economic and social sustainability, albeit with a negative impact. Surprisingly, the influence of digitalization on environmental sustainability is positive, suggesting a more complex relationship in this domain. Furthermore, our research shows that globalization has a major beneficial impact on digitalization, highlighting the connections between these two processes. Specifically, we offer new proof that, in the EU context, globalization has a beneficial impact on social, environmental, and economic sustainability. By providing complex insights into the intricate linkages between globalization, digitization, and sustainable development, this research adds to the continuing conversation on this topic. The results highlight the need for a thorough comprehension of the complex processes influencing social, environmental, and economic sustainability in a time of unparalleled global connection and technology progress.

The economic levels of African countries can clearly be distinguished from each other on the African economic development ladder. However, there are also ruptures and discontinuities at the regional levels. The very uneven levels of development that exist within Africa give rise to spatial discontinuities and thus initiate a positive dynamic of local cooperation and convergence or start a long-standing continental dynamic of territorial competition highlighted by localized patches of divergence. This article investigates the influence of sustainable globalization and digital transformation in bridging regional convergence in sub-Saharan African countries over a period of 6years (2015-2022). The research used social, economic globalization and digital skills as measures of globalization and digital transformation respectively. Despite the economic integration in the African countries, our finding proved that economic globalization has no significant effect on bridging regional inequalities. However, we proved a positive and statistically significant association between social globalization and the magnitude of regional convergence within Africa. Regarding the practical implications of our research, as we noticed in the theoretical discussions, some countries especially the eastern africa are lagging behind in terms of Globalization and digital transformation. It is an undeniable fact that, Globalization and digital transformation have had a significant impact on regional inequality, leading to increased economic disparities between regions. Therefore, policy makers should employ economic policies that will help bridge the regional inequality gaps amongst regions in Africa.

Emerging crises, rising nationalism, anti-rights movement, a collapsing ecosystem, among other priority issues, have resulted in a fragile global context. This context requires global solidarity that is informed by decolonial and feminist principles. Cultivating avenues for this solidarity is an urgent goal for activists, academics, and policy makers in the international cooperation sector. Digital technologies provide immense possibilities in this regard. Drawing on lessons from a research project with young women and advocates in Kenya, I showcase how we can leverage digital platforms as safer spaces for global solidarity. Digital platforms, although paradoxical spaces that are simultaneously safe and unsafe for particular groups, present an excellent opportunity to envisage pockets of safety that can nurture networks of care and community that are central to transnational solidarity. I also argue for the need to centre digital rights paying attention to the widening disparities in availability, accessibility, and affordability of digital technologies that are exacerbated by exciting global crises.

Over the past few decades, digital transformations have had a profound effect on the nature and structure of the global economy, impelling a move to a post-industrial economy that is based on technologically advanced, knowledge-intensive industries and anchored in the knowledge economy. Whereas in developed nations the knowledge economy is a central feature of growth, this transformation remains largely an aspiration throughout much of the Global South. This paper provides a critical exploration of the impetus the digital has brought to modernization efforts in less developed nations. Using the MENA region as a case study, it argues that the pursuit of the knowledge economy does not offer a linear path to modernization as many of the developing nations are faced with new challenges even as they strive to overcome long-standing impediments. The road to the knowledge economy is complicated by the structure of the region’s political economies, but also tied to other to a host of other factors that preclude the development of an enabling environment, including adequate (digital and physical) infrastructure, an overhauled educational system, policies and frameworks that produce more adaptive institutional bodies, and a strong culture of research and innovation, not to mention the digital gender gap and pressing environmental issues. The persistence of various socio-economic, political and demographic challenges is such that the same forces that propel development also impedes the region’s momentum for substantial or structural change.