Regionalism Revised: A Critical-reflectivist Framework for Engaging the Changing Nature of Developing Regionalisms in Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this article is a theoretical one, namely to make the case for a critical-reflectivist approach to the study of regionalism in Africa and beyond. We argue that contemporary changes in the global political economy require political economists to reconsider how we study regional processes and actors. The article provides insights into the sociology of the field of study by recounting its evolution, reviewing key debates and tracing the dominance of rationalist theories on regional integration and regionalism. Subsequently, the article questions the ontological premises of state-centrism and market logics in conventional regional theorization that does not take account of the complexities and multidimensionality of regions and regional processes. Traditional approaches to regionalism fail to do justice to regional manifestations and the repercussions of Africa's changing transnational relations as well as to crucial dynamics within regional civil societies. In this respect, the analytical value of both Robert W. Cox's World Order Approach (WOA) and the New Regionalism(s) Approach (NRA) for challenging the theoretical hegemony in the field of study is elaborated on. The theoretical framework proposed in this article points to neglected dimensions of regionalization and stresses both structural factors as well as the myriad of regional actors and their respective regional strategies as drivers of the changing nature of developing regionalisms in Africa. The authors' claim that regionalism is everything but a ‘states only’ domain is substantiated by the proposed conceptualization of regional civil society, a persistent analytical ‘blind spot’ in the study of regionalism. Drawing eclectically on the WOA and the NRA, the article provides a theoretical ‘entry-point’ for the analytical incorporation of regional civil societies into the political economy of African regionalisms. The article concludes by arguing that analytical and theoretical sensitivity to potentially transformative societal actors and processes at the regional level becomes increasingly relevant in the context of shared experiences of neoliberal globalization/regionalization as well as of Africa's new ‘partnerships’ with emerging powers.

Notes

1. Interestingly, even Balassa, one of the neo-classical pioneers of market integration theory, agreed that ‘present-day underdeveloped countries need more state interference in economic affairs than do advanced economies, since, in the former, market incentives are often not conducive to development’ (1961, 10).

2. The WOA draws not only on Cox (see, for instance, Gill 1995a, 1995b), but we employ this ‘label’ for the purpose of our argument, since, when discussing the WOA, we refer specifically to contributions which draw on Cox (see Cox 1983, 1987).

3. The first contributions on regionalism from the perspective of the WOA emanated from research projects at the Political Economy Research Centre of the University of Sheffield (Gamble and Payne 1996, x).

4. In a re-evaluation of his theory Cox states that

[m]any people would need to be understood more in their relationship to consumption (or the inability to consume adequately) rather than to production—the more or less permanently unemployed, the inhabitants of shanty towns, welfare recipients, and students. The old production-related categories are not entirely superseded; but the scheme of categories of people relevant to the problematic of social change needs to be rethought. (1999, 26)

5. Poku estimates the total ‘apartheid debt’ of the Frontline States and South Africa at $28 billion (2001, 37).

6. Hettne has subsequently acknowledged the weakness encapsulated in this earlier work and now emphasizes the importance to analyse regionalism from an endogenous as well as from an exogenous perspective (2003, 26).

7. We introduce the separate category of ‘NRsA’ only for practical reasons in order to emphasize theoretical innovation within the broad research tradition of the NRA. There has been constant epistemic ‘cross-fertilization’ between the NRsA and the NRA as well as a significant overlap of meta-theoretical assumptions.

8. In this context, Gramsci was inspired by Machiavelli's ‘image of power as a centaur: half man, half beast, a necessary combination of consent and coercion’ (Cox 1996a, 127; see Gramsci 1971, 169–170; Machiavelli 1977, 49–50).