The Convergent Structural Base of Sustainable Development in the 21st Century

¹ Siberian Federal University, 660075 Lida Prushinskaya St. 2, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
² Technical University of Kosice, Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies, 04200 9 Letná, Kosice, Slovak Republic
³ National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, 634050, 30 Lenina st., Tomsk, Russia

^* Corresponding author: zhironkin@inbox.ru

Abstract

Sustainable development is a symbiosis of technological and social progress, as well as responsible environmental management, should not rely on old industries that actively consume non-renewable natural resources, but on new, convergent-technological ones. In this paradigm, the environmental safety of future generations is formed by structural shifts in the economies of advanced countries caused by the expansion of technological convergence. Technological convergence – the result of accelerating scientific and technological progress in the 21st century – has a transformative effect on the economies of developed countries, forming a new type of sectorial genesis. It is not related to the deepening of sectorial specialization or inter-industry cooperation within the framework of the evolution of basic technologies, but to the emergence of technologies of a fundamentally new type, formed as a result of the merger of know-how from different industries. The structural shifts arising from technological convergence do not have the historical analogues and forms of regulation developed by industrial policies of developed countries. The article outlines the key statements of the the impact of convergent technologies on the structural base of sustainable development.