Chinese embedded globalization: social-economic formations in dispute in world reordering

ABSTRACT

This contribution focuses on a reconceptualization of the term globalization, drawing on world system theories and the dialectical concept of countermovement. The focus is the Social-Economic Formation (SEF) concept elaborated by the Marxist tradition to understand and analyse the contemporary ascendance of China and its power projection. Based on dialectic methodology, we argue that globalization is a contradictory process of interconnectivity between SEFs in different historical eras with substantive changes in the space–time relationship. Thus, the embryonic Embedded Chinese Globalization is emerging as a historical negation of Neoliberal globalization (NG)

KEYWORDS:

• Globalization
• social-economic formation
• China
• international political economy
• development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Hegel’s term Aufhebung has the apparently contradictory implications. it is the synthesis or the negation of the negation. It defines, in the same concept: negation, preserving, and overcoming/surpass (the German verb aufheben means ‘to cancel’, ‘to keep’ and ‘to pick up’).

2 We use both social formation and social-economic formations as synonymous.

3 We will deepen this point in the empirical part.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [grant number 304103/2018-7].

Notes on contributors

Javier Vadell

Javier Vadell is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations of the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC Minas). He is also visiting Professor at National University of Rosario (UNR), Argentina, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), and at Jiaxing University, China. He is Research Fellow at Huaqiao University, Xiamen. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Estudos Internacionais, Journal of International Relations of PUC Minas. He is a researcher at CNPq, Brazil. He is a CLACSO ‘China and the Map of world power’ working group member. He has published numerous articles and book chapters about Latin American international politics and China.

Elias Jabbour

Elias Jabbour is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (FCE-UERJ), at the Graduate Program in Economic Sciences, and at the Graduate Program in International Relations (UERJ). He is a Consultant to the Presidency at New Development Bank (NDB), Shanghai. He is an author of books and more than a hundred articles on topics related to socialism and the Chinese development process. He has experience in geography, human and economic geography, political economy, international political economy, and economic planning. The main topics of research are China, the transition to socialism, national and comparative development strategies, the Marxist category of economic-social formation, and the independent thinking of Ignacio Rangel.