Overview

This book aims to fill a gap in studies of the BRICS grouping of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It provides a critical analysis of their economies, societies and geopolitical strategies within the framework of a global capitalism that is increasingly predatory, unequal and ecologically self-destructive - no more so than in the BRICS countries themselves.

In unprecedented detail and with great innovation, the contributors consider theoretical traditions in political economy as applied to the BRICS, including 'sub-imperialism', the World Systems perspective and dynamics of territorial expansion. Only such an approach can interpret the potential for a 'brics-from-below' uprising that appears likely to accompany the rise of the BRICS.

Patrick Bond directs the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Civil Society in Durban and is senior professor of development studies; he is also professor of political economy at Wits University in Johannesburg. His books include South Aftrica: The Present as History(with John Saul), Elite Transition, and Politics of Climate Justice.

Ana Garcia teaches history and international relations at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janerio and is an associate of the Institute of Alternative Policies in the Southern Cone of Latin America.

This book is a uniquely valuable resource for development scholars, students and activists. It includes outstanding contributions written by a stellar group of authors. They pierce through every aspect of the discourse around the BRICS, showing the reality beneath the politically engineered triumphalism.                                                                                                                                                          

 -Alfredo Saad-Filho, Professor of Political Economy

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Contributors

Elmar Altvater, Patrick Bond, Einar Braathen, Ruslam Dzarasov, Ana Garcia, Richard Kamidza, Claudio Katz, Farai Maguwu, Gilmar Mascarenhas, Leo Panitch, Gonzalo Pozo, Niall Reddy, Susanne Soederberg, Achin Vanaik, Paris Yeros, Baruti Amisi, Omar Bonilla Martinez, Pedro Henrique Campos, Virginia Fontes, Ho-fung Hung, Karina Kato, Mathias Luce, Judith Marshall, Sam Moyo, Bobby Peek, Vijay Prashad, William Robinson, Celina Sorboe, Immanuel Wallerstein