Emergence and multipolarity: ‘Southern’ nodes in the post-1990s world order

Speaker: C.P. Chandrasekhar, Professor of Centre for Economic Studies & Planning (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Implicit in recent discussions on the international economic order is an understanding that as opposed to traditional "multipolarity" that consists of more than one historically developed nation sharing positions of dominance in the world order, some developing countries (especially China and, to a lesser extent, India) have strengthened their position in the world system since the 1990s.

These Southern nodes in multipolarity are seen as reshaping the world order in an altogether different way. It has also been suggested that this reflects a more generalised tendency towards "emergence" and Southern empowerment, strengthened by the need to win Southern support for efforts to address global problems such as climate change.

However, underlying the evidence supporting such projections are two different relocations: the relocation of manufacturing and services production from the North to the South; and, the relocation of finance from the North to the South. Unlike during the import-substitution years, these relocations are substantially driven by changes in the metropolitan core of capitalism, rather than responses to inequality from the South.

The consequences of both are an increase in vulnerability and growing divisions within the South with attendant implications for any reshaping of the current unequal global order.

About the speakers

C. P. Chandrasekhar

C. P. Chandrasekhar has been engaged in teaching and research at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for more than 30 years.

He has also served as Visiting Senior Lecturer, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Executive Editor of Deccan Herald Group of Publications Bangalore; Consultant, Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices, Ministry of Industry, Government of India, and Research Associate, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum.

His areas of interest include the role of finance and industry in development and the experience with fiscal, financial and industrial policy reform in developing countries.

Andrea Cornwall (Chair)

Professor Cornwall, from the Department of International Development, is a social anthropologist specialising in the anthropology of participation and democracy, masculinities, women’s empowerment and women’s rights, and sexualities.

Anisa Muzaffar (Discussant)

Anisa is a PhD student in the Department of International Development. Her research focuses on identifying the ways in which resource rich developing countries can gainfully insert and participate in agriculture value chains towards achieving sustainable income growth.