Technology, resources and geography in a paradigm shift: the case of critical and conflict materials in ICTs
通过分析美国专利数据，研究信息通信技术与关键和冲突材料之间的技术及地理关联，揭示了全球南北在价值创造与资源开采活动中的技术-资源鸿沟。
Critical and conflict materials (CCMs) are providing an important material infrastructure for recent technological shifts. Relying on text analysis of US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data, this exploratory study examines the technological and geographical linkages between technological paradigms and selected CCMs. Our descriptive analysis finds evidence of a clear association between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and CCM intensity over time, and of a striking resource–technology divide between value-creating and -extracting activities across the Global North and the Global South and their regions. The paper emphasizes the need for a more critical, spatially sensitive approach to studying resource-based technological change to expose its uneven development consequences.