A cultural political economy of crisis recovery: (trans-)national imaginaries of ‘BRIC’ and subaltern groups in China

Abstract

This paper explores crisis recovery from a cultural political economy (CPE) perspective. It examines the role of (trans-)national forces in constructing BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as drivers for recovery. First, it comments on some ‘cultural economy’ studies and indicates the value of a CPE approach. Second, it examines the ‘BRIC’ as a symbolic condensation of ‘hope’ knowledge and shows how this signifier evolved in three overlapping moments referring to its role as investor, consumer and lender. Third, it considers the material basis of the appeal of BRIC discourses, especially the credibility acquired through BRIC stimulus packages in the global financial crisis. Fourth, it indicates how China's ‘gold standard’ stimulus package has intensified some deep-rooted political tensions and harmed subaltern groups. Finally, it reflects on how CPE can contribute to studies of crisis and recovery.

Keywords:

• cultural political economy
• BRIC discourse
• crisis recovery
• China's stimulus package
• land-based finance
• subaltern groups

Acknowledgements

This paper derives in part from research conducted with the support of a British Academy BARDA Award on ‘Changing Cultures of Competitiveness’ 2008–10 (No. BARDA-48854). The author also thanks Bob Jessop and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and Lo Mo Kwan and Slamet Sawiyah for their domestic support during fieldwork. This paper draws on other work produced in the course of the research project.

Notes

1 Sum (2005, 2011) outlines six discursive-material moments in the remaking of social relations.

2 In light of the deepening financial crisis, a fourth moment has emerged: the construction of ‘fear’. Apart from worries about China's and India's locomotive roles, this mainly concerns a feared loss of US competitiveness rooted in ‘innovation deficits’ aggravated by rising ‘frugal innovation’ in these countries (see Schmidt, 2010).

3 For Chaput, affect ‘acts as an energy moving between human beings via communicative practices that inspire behaviour instinctively’ (2011, p. 7; more generally, pp. 7–12).

4 These growth ingredients evolved into a measurement tool known as the Growth Environment Scores (GES) Indexes by 2005 (for details, see O'Neill, 2012).

5 For details of these products, see http://www2.goldmansachs.com/ideas/brics/index.html, (accessed 8 October 2011).

6 South Africa was included as the fifth member of the BRIC Summit in 2011 in China.

7 Fundamental differences among the BRIC include diverse political systems and dissimilar views on key policy issues such as free trade and energy pricing.

8 As local government debts grew, they were allowed to issue bonds from October 2011 until June 2012.

9 Wang Xiaoying, a researcher in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, described this process in 2010 as ‘acquiring land, selling land, imposing taxes, mortgage and then acquiring land again’; see http://www.globaltimes.cn/business/china-economy/2010-12/606958.html (accessed 16 August 2012). My account clarifies, builds on, and gives more details.

10 Wikipedia includes ‘Protests of Wukan’ (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_of_Wukan) and a Google search on 13 August 2012 generated 125,000 hits for ‘Wukan Revolt’ on YouTube, international media and blog sites.

11 Most rural migrants have no hukou in urban areas and no rights to public housing, education for their children or local pension and health care benefits.

12 For details of the ‘Blood Map’, see ‘Elusive “blood map” founder speaks out’, http://observers.france24.com/content/20101119-china-evictions-violence-blood-map-google-founder-speaks-out (accessed 14 March 2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ngai-Ling Sum

Ngai-Ling Sum is Senior Lecturer in Politics, Philosophy and Religion and Co-Director (with Bob Jessop) of the Cultural Political Economy Research Centre at Lancaster University. She has research and teaching interests in international political economy, Gramsci and Foucault; globalization and competitiveness; the BRIC quartet, China and the Pearl River Delta region. She was awarded (with Bob Jessop) the Gunnar Myrdal Prize by the European Association of Evolutionary Political Economics for their co-authored book, Beyond the regulation approach (2006). She publishes in journals such as Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Critical Policy Studies, Development Dialogue, New Political Economy, Critical Asian Studies, Competition and Change, Capital & Class, Urban Studies and Economy and Society as well as being a regular contributor to edited collections in her research fields.