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

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• Cultural Political Economy,Financial Imaginaries,BRIC,China

Kaynakça

1. Åslund, A. (2013) Now the Brics Party is Over, They must Wind Down the State’s Role, Financial Times, 27 August. Available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0147b43c-040b11e3-8aab00144feab7de.html#axzz2slbmgNbH, accessed 08 February 2014.
2. Buchanan, M. (2009) Decoupling is Happening for Real, 10 July 2009 http://www.chartwelletfadvisor.com/etf-newsletters/vol06-iss096.pdf, accessed on 21 February 2013.
3. Business Week (2010) China Construction Bank 2009 Profit Up 15 Percent, 28 March, http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EO1OQ00.htm, accessed on 08 February 2014.
4. China Daily (2010) China’s Land Sales Revenue Close to $ 233 bln in 2009, 2 February http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-02/02/content_9417378.htm, accessed on 1 March 2013.
5. Cruikshank, B. (1999) The Will to Empower, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
6. Drezner, Daniel J. (2009) BRIC-a-brac, http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/06/17/bric-a-brac, accessed on 08 February 2014.
7. Dean, M. (1999) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
8. Evans-Pritchard, A. (2011) Goldman Sachs Shuns the BRIC for Wall Street, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8265175/Goldman-Sachs-shuns-theBRICs-for-Wall-Street.html, accessed 08 February 2014.

9. FlorCruz, J. (2009) Will the China Property Bubble Pop?, http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/12/30/china.property.bubble/index.html, accessed 08 February 2014.
10. Goldman Sachs (2010) Idea Website on BRIC, http://www2.goldmansachs.com/ideas/brics/index.html, accessed on 08 February 2014.
11. Hsing, Y-T. (2010) The Great Urban Transformation: Politics of Land and Property in China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12. Investment U (2009) Profit from the ‘New Decoupling’, http://www.investmentu.com/IUEL/2009/July/decoupling-emerging markets.html, accessed 08 February 2014.
13. Kelly, B. (2009) Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRICs) Throw Down the Gauntlet of the International Monetary System, 28 June, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2009/06/28/brazil-russia-india-and-china-the-bricsthrow-down-the-gauntlet-on-monetary-system-reform/, accessed on 8 February 2014.
14. Li, R. (2010) Schools' demise forces migrant children home. South China Morning Post, 03 February, available at http://www.scmp.com/article/705325/schools-demise-forcesmigrant-children-home, accessed on 08 February 2014.
15. Lord, J. (2013) EM Currencies: Fragile Five, Morgan Stanley Research, 1 August, p.15, http://www.morganstanleyfa.com/public/projectfiles/dce4d168-15f9-4245-9605- e37e2caf114c.pdf, accessed on 8 February 2014.
16. Lordabett.com (2009) Why Decoupling Should Benefit International Investors, https://www.lordabbett.com/articles/wp_why_decoupling_should.pdf, accessed on 3 March 2010.
17. Magalhaes, L. (2013) China Only BRIC Country Currently Worthy of the Title - O’Neill, Wall Street Journal, 23 August, http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/08/23/china-onlybric-country-currently-worthy-of-the-title-oneill/, accessed 08 February 2014.
18. Marinis, A. (2008) BRIC Consumers Can’t Hold Off World Recession, Livemint.com, http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/18211911/Bric-consumers-can8217t-hol.html, accessed on 08 February 2014.
19. Mellor, W. and Lim, L-M. (2008) BRIC Shoppers will ‘Rescue World’, Goldman Sachs Says, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3aTPjYcw8a8, accessed 8 February 2014.
20. Miller, P. and Rose, N. (2008) Governing the Present, Cambridge: Polity.
21. Naughton, B. (2009) Understanding Chinese Stimulus Package, Chinese Leadership Monitor No. 28, Spring, http://www.hoover.org/publications/clm/issues/44613157.html, accessed on 08 February 2014.
22. O’Neill, J. (2009) The New Shopping Superpower, http://www.newsweek.com/2009/03/20/the-new-shopping-superpower.html, accessed on 8 February 2014.
23. Powell, B. (2010) China’s Property: Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble, Time, 22 March, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1971284,00.html, accessed on 8 February 2014.
24. Renard, T. (2009) A BRIC in the World: Emerging Powers, Europe, and the Coming Order, Royal Institute for International Relations, Egmont Paper 31, Brussels: Academia Press.
25. Rossi, V. (2008) Synchronized Dive into Recession: Focus on Damage Limitation, International Economic Programme, Oct 2008, IEP BP 08/04, http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/Research/International%20Economics/bp1008recession.pdf, on 8 February 2014.
26. Sanderson, H. (2008) China Wants More Say in Global Financial Bodies, USA Today, 29 October, http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-10-29- 2068576087_x.htm, accessed on 08 February 2014.
27. Schiff, P. (2008) Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets. Chichester: Wiley.
28. Scher, R. (2009) From BRIC to BIC … or Even to IC??, New York: Foreign Policy Association, http://risingpowers.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/06/08/from-bric-tobic%E2%80%A6or-even-ic/, accessed 8 February 2014.
29. Schmidt, G. (2010) Erasing our Innovation Deficit, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/02/09/AR2010020901191.html, accessed 08 February 2014.
30. Shinnick, R. (2008) Decoupling Thesis Intact, Seeking Alpha, 10 February 2008, http://seekingalpha.com/article/63886-decoupling-thesis-intact, accessed on 8 February 2014.
31. Smith, C. (2010) Global Economy’s Next Threat: China’s Real Estate Bubble, http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/global-economys-next-threat-chinas-real-estatebubble/19302329/#, accessed 8 February 2014.
32. Sum, N-L. (2004) Discourses, material power and (counter-)hegemony, http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/cperc/docs/Sum%20CPERC%20Working%20Paper%202012-01.pdf, accessed on 8 February 2014.
33. Sum, N-L. (2011) Financial Crisis, Land-Induced Financialization and the Subalterns in China, in C. Scherrer (ed.) Social China. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 199-208.
34. Sum, N-L. and Jessop, B. (2013) Towards a Cultural Political Economy: Putting Culture in its Place in Political Economy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
35. Tasker, P. (2010) Beware the lure of GDP when seeking stocks in Brics, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/18f2c282-ff1b-11de-a677-00144feab49a.html, accessed on 8 February 2014.
36. Tett, G. (2010) The Story of the Brics, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/112ca932-00ab-11dfae8d-00144feabdc0.html, accessed on 08 February 2014.
37. Tong, S. and Zhang, Y. (2009) China’s Responses to the Economic Crisis, EAI Background Brief No. 438, National Singapore University, http://www.eai.nus.edu.sg/BB438.pdf, accessed on 8 February 2014.
38. Wilson, D. and Purushothaman, R. (2003) Dreaming with the BRICs: the Path to 2050, Goldman Sachs Global Economic Research Website, Global Economic Paper No. 99, http://www.goldmansachs.com/japan/ideas/brics/book/99-dreaming.pdf, accessed on 8 February 2014.
39. Window of China (2009) China Updates Details of Stimulus Fund, 21 May, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/21/content_11415559.htm, accessed on 8 February 2014.
40. Yuk, P. K. (2013) MINT: the New BRIC on the Block?, http://blogs.ft.com/beyondbrics/2013/11/14/mint-the-new-bric-on-the-block/, accessed 14 Nov 2014.
41. Zhang, M. (2010) CBRC beefs up measures, Shanghai Daily, 25 February, http://www.shanghaidaily.com/Business/finance/CBRC-beefs-upmeasures/shdaily.shtml, accessed 8 February 2014.