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The BRICS in Africa: Agents of Development?

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Emerging Powers in Africa

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

Abstract

Ian Taylor challenges the tropes surrounding a notional ‘Africa Rising’ which have become ever more pressing in recent years. What is interesting is the way in which the discourse on ‘Africa Rising’ reflects—and is an extension of—the wider spatio-temporal impulses of emerging economies, most emblematically captured in the acronym BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). The BRICS term is a neologism symbolising a putative changing world order. However, this understanding is critiqued in this chapter. This has serious implications for those who place hope on the BRICS as centres of resistance to the dominant neoliberal system. This is particularly (but not exclusively) so with regard to Africa, where numerous elites and intellectuals have greeted the BRICS as the heralds of a new dawn, but resource dependency continues to impede genuine development.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School for International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland

    Ian Taylor

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  1. Ian Taylor
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Justin van der Merwe

  2. University of St. Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom

    Ian Taylor

  3. Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    Alexandra Arkhangelskaya

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Taylor, I. (2016). The BRICS in Africa: Agents of Development?. In: van der Merwe, J., Taylor, I., Arkhangelskaya, A. (eds) Emerging Powers in Africa. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40736-4_3

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