This thesis proposes a new analytical framework to analyse the relationship between material and energy use with indicators of well-being and economic growth in developing countries, conducted in the context of debates around the resource curse and development theories. By combining the societal metabolism approach with a historic and political context, this methodology explores the social metabolism and resource curse over time, relying on biophysical indicators of resource abundance. The analytical framework developed in this thesis identifies different aspects that have shaped the development trajectories of currently developing countries. It demonstrates that in order to understand present and future development paths of developing countries, a holistic approach that can combine different sets of data is needed, as it can inform about possibilities and tradeoffs of development pathways such as those envisioned by the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, the approach developed in this thesis provides the basis to carry out developmental research utilizing a metabolic approach in developing countries where data issues prevent societal metabolism research. In this thesis two case studies are presented to test the methodology, finding that: (1) socio-political stability plays an important role shaping the metabolism of an economy and avoiding the resource curse; (2) well-being can improve without growth in economic activity or resource consumption; (3) international governance has had major impacts shaping the present economic structure of the selected economies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:713207 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Andersen Chinbuah, Arturo Alfred |
| Contributors | Steinberger, Julia ; Van Alstine, James |
| Publisher | University of Leeds |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/16901/ |
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