A Cultural Political Economy of Financial Imaginaries: the (Re-)Making of ‘BRIC’ and the Case of China

Ngai--ling SUM

Makale detayları

A Cultural Political Economy of Financial Imaginaries: the (Re-)Making of ‘BRIC’ and the Case of China

Yazarlar:

Ngai--ling SUM

Yayıncı:

Dış Politika ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Derneği

Dergi:

Spectrum: Journal of Global Studies 2015 Vol.7 Issue 1, pp.41-61

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

5/2015

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2000833393

Sıklık:

İki Yıllık

pISSN:

1308-8432

Özet:

 


This article explores the role of economic/financial imaginaries (e.g., BRIC) from a cultural
political economy (CPE) perspective. It is divided into four parts. Part one identifies some key
questions from a CPE entry-point regarding the construction of economic imaginaries. Part
two examines the role of (trans-)national forces in making and remaking the ‘BRIC’ (Brazil,
Russia, India and China) as a ‘growth’ and ‘hope’ object over three overlapping stages. It
notes that the national and transnational resonance of the BRIC imaginaries depends not only
on developments in the financial and real economies but also on specific discourses, practices,
and knowledge technologies. Part three examines how the ‘BRIC’ discourses are
recontextualized in the Sinophone world as ‘four golden brick countries’ to signify ‘strength’
and ‘greatest at last’. Part four investigates how China, as one of the ‘golden bricks’, was
eager to showcase its strength following the 2007 financial crisis, which led to a fall in China’s
exports and rise in unemployment.. It promoted a vast stimulus package that has posed
tremendous fiscal challenges, especially to its regional-local authorities, which increasingly
rely on land as collateral for loans and source of revenue. This intensified land-based
accumulation, inflating the ‘property bubble’ and stimulating land clearance/dispossession. In
turn this has had very uneven effects on the ‘subaltern south’, illustrated here through impact
on the aspirant middle class and migrant workers’ children. Though some measures have
been taken to dampen the property market, they have been rather limited and social unrest
continues. Part five ends with some comments on the contribution of the cultural political
economy approach in understanding the role of ‘BRIC’ as well as other new acronyms such as
‘MINT’ and ‘MIST’ as economic imaginaries.

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Makale detayları

A Cultural Political Economy of Financial Imaginaries: the (Re-)Making of ‘BRIC’ and the Case of China

Yazarlar: Ngai--ling SUM

Yayıncı: Dış Politika ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Derneği

Dergi: Spectrum: Journal of Global Studies 2015 Vol.7 Issue 1, pp.41-61

Belge Tipi: Makale

Yayın Tarihi: 5/2015

Belge Dili: İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.): 2000833393

Sıklık: İki Yıllık

pISSN: 1308-8432

Sayı

Yazarlar:

Ngai--ling SUM

Yayıncı:

Dış Politika ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Derneği

Dergi:

Spectrum: Journal of Global Studies 2015 Vol.7 Issue 1, pp.41-61

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

5/2015

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2000833393

Sıklık:

İki Yıllık

pISSN:

1308-8432