Digitization and sustainability: keys to qualitative growth
This article sees the twin green and digital transitions as a central challenge that calls for rethinking the economic development model in the 21st century. It argues that economic growth based on quantitative expansion generates profound environmental crises and social inequalities, making a paradigm shift toward qualitative growth essential. Within this framework, it proposes reconciling digitization with sustainability, by orienting technological transformation toward improving the quality of life rather than the mere accumulation of wealth. Based on a critical review of the impacts of digitization and the limitations of conventional approaches to measuring development, it explores alternatives for integrating social justice, ecological limits, and technological progress. The article contributes to the debate on how to articulate an economic model that responds to contemporary challenges without reproducing the extractive dynamics of traditional growth.
SDG

She is a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Urban Transformation and Global Change Group (TURBA) and at the UOC’s Economic and Business Studies. Her expertise lies in addressing the uncertainties and complexities that arise from using scientific knowledge to tackle environmental challenges. From 2022 to 2025, she led a project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation focused on the dual ecological and digital transition.

Professor of Economics in Economic and Business Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Director of the interdisciplinary research group on ICT i2TIC. Specialist in the economic analysis of digital transformation and the economy of knowledge: a topic on which he has published 67 books and book chapters and 115 articles in indexed research and information magazine.