Is it still possible to achieve both rapid growth and broad inclusion in today’s global economy? If so, what would it take?

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The global economy today feels like a paradox. On one hand, technological advancement, digital trade, and hyperconnectivity have opened extraordinary opportunities for growth. On the other, inequality, job insecurity, and cultural dislocation are rising faster than ever.

Dani Rodrik’s Straight Talk on Trade confronts this tension directly, arguing that globalization, democracy, and national sovereignty must be balanced rather than maximized. His question- whether nations can still achieve rapid economic growth and broad inclusion, feels deeply personal to me. Having spent over a decade in South Asia’s manufacturing sector before joining FIT’s Global Fashion Management program, I have witnessed both the promises and perils of globalization up close.

When I started my career at Shahi Exports in India, the global apparel supply chain represented progress: stable export orders, foreign investment, and rising employment for thousands of workers, many of them women entering the workforce for the first time. Yet beneath that growth lay an unsettling truth. Wages stagnated while production targets soared. Factory floors grew more automated, and the creative value of the products often accrued to global buyers, not local artisans. Growth was visible, but inclusion was selective. Rodrik’s framework explains this perfectly: the globalization model of the 1990s and 2000s prized efficiency and liberalization, often at the cost of domestic equity and political voice.

So, is it still possible to achieve both? I believe it is, but not by repeating history. The classical model of industrialization that lifted the West and East Asia to prosperity has lost its inclusivity. Automation has reduced manufacturing’s ability to absorb labor. Supply chains have consolidated around fewer, more powerful players. For countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, or India, the challenge is not just to produce more, but to create better systems for distributing the value they produce. This demands a rethinking of globalization itself, one that re-anchors growth in local capability, education, and institutional flexibility.

Rodrik argues that “history need not be a guide here,” and I find that liberating. Developing nations no longer have to endure decades of “sweatshop phases” before improving labor standards. Technology, digital infrastructure, and policy innovation can accelerate inclusion, if directed intentionally. For instance, when factories adopt digital transparency tools or when brands commit to ethical sourcing, the benefits ripple through the ecosystem: workers gain bargaining power, and consumers become co-participants in social responsibility. In my view, the future of inclusive growth lies in these hybrid systems, where sustainability, technology, and policy co-evolve.

The real obstacle is not globalization itself, but the imbalance of power within it. Too often, global institutions prescribe “best practices” that disregard local realities. During my years working between India and Bangladesh, I saw how Western compliance models were implemented superficially, checklists that satisfied audits but did not transform livelihoods. Rodrik’s notion of policy space- the freedom for nations to design context-specific solutions, is critical here. True inclusion emerges when countries are allowed to nurture industries, set labor standards, and build safety nets that fit their own development paths, rather than mimic someone else’s.

In today’s service-dominated economy, this challenge grows even sharper. Services can generate income but rarely scale employment the way factories once did. A coder or designer can double productivity with a new tool; a garment worker cannot. Therefore, inclusion requires investment not only in hard infrastructure- ports, machines, logistics, but also in soft infrastructure: education, digital literacy, and adaptive learning systems. As Rodrik suggests, without these, growth remains brittle and exclusionary. Education, in this sense, becomes the new factory floor, the space where nations can mass-produce opportunity.

Still, inclusion is not only an economic challenge; it is a moral and political one. Across the world, frustration with globalization has morphed into populism and nationalism. People feel left behind by systems that treat them as data points, not citizens. Rodrik warns that growth without dignity breeds backlash, a truth I see echoed in labor protests, trade disputes, and consumer fatigue. To reconcile rapid growth with inclusion, countries must rebuild trust between citizens, markets, and the state. Economic dignity, the sense that one’s contribution matters,  must return to the center of policy debates.

The fashion industry, where I come from, offers both a cautionary tale and a laboratory for change. A T-shirt made in Dhaka or Tirupur connects multiple economies, yet the worker who sews it often earns less than two percent of its retail price. This imbalance is not inevitable, it is designed. But design can also be reimagined. Circular supply chains, artisan empowerment, and digital traceability platforms are redefining how growth can be shared more fairly. When companies invest in artisans as partners rather than laborers, or when consumers choose transparency over trend cycles, globalization begins to regain its human face.

Rodrik’s call for “democratic development” resonates profoundly with me. Development cannot be technocratic; it must be participatory. Economic decisions, from trade policies to factory regulations, should involve the voices of those affected. Inclusion is not just about redistributing income; it’s about redistributing power. Rapid growth is sustainable only when people feel seen, heard, and protected within it.

So yes, it is still possible to achieve both rapid growth and inclusion, but only if nations move beyond the passive acceptance of globalization and toward active design. The question is not how much the world trades, but how it trades; not how fast economies grow, but who grows with them. As someone who has witnessed the invisible threads of global supply chains, I believe the next phase of globalization must weave together profit with purpose, progress with protection, and growth with grace