Political Economy

G11 - China and the Global South in a Multipolar World: Joint Session of the CPSA and CSA

Date: Jun 4 | Time: 10:15am to 11:45am | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Lynette Ong (University of Toronto)

Co-Chair/Président/Présidente : David Chen (University of Toronto)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Adam Alimi (York University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Kristin Plys (University of Toronto)

Session Proposal to the Canadian Political Science Association 2025 Annual Conference, Joint Session with the Canadian Sociological Association Organizers: Lynette Ong (Co-Chair), Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto Email: lynette.ong@utoronto.ca David Chen (Co-Chair), PhD Student, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto Email: dw.chen@mail.utoronto.ca Adam Alimi, PhD Student, Department of Politics, York University Email: aalimi91@yahoo.com Erdem Kaya, PhD Student, Department of Politics, York University Email: erdemkaya3@gmail.com Kristin Plys (Discussant), Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto Email: kristin.plys@utoronto.ca With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the world shifted from a bipolar system, characterized by the US-Soviet hegemonic struggle, to a unipolar world order led by the United States. The idea of multipolarity also gained renewed relevance after the Cold War, primarily outside of the United States (e.g., in China, Russia, and Europe), as a derivative element of the dominant discussions surrounding unipolarity. Multipolarity was thus used in the 1990s and 2000s as compatible with the reality of unipolarity, envisioning a new world order based on international multilateralism and mutual respect among major sovereign powers, rather than directly challenging the US global hegemon. Through state-directed industrial planning combined with market-oriented reforms since 1978, China has become the center of global production networks and made significant progress in industrial modernization and the rapid development of high-tech and renewable energy industries, including solar panels, electric vehicles, computer chips, AI technology, and space technology. The rise of China not only provides a unique case for studying the dynamics of economic growth and industrial modernization in late-developing countries – often referred to as the China Model – but also opens a new area of study on how China’s centrifugal geo-economic engagement in the Global South fosters new waves of industrial development (e.g., through the Belt and Road Initiative and the recent expansion of BRICS). China’s rise has also inspired and amplified revisionist ambitions against the unipolar world order led by the United States. This changing reality has reshaped the meaning of multipolarity: it is no longer aimed at peaceful coexistence with the US hegemon, but has increasingly adopted an overtly anti-hegemonic agenda. While the notion of multipolarity is championed primarily by China and Russia, other Global South nations, such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, Iran, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, and Malaysia, have also embraced it with enthusiasm. This is a joint session to be held between the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) and the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA). Our session welcomes submissions from various disciplines focused on topics related to China and the Global South. These topics may include, but are not limited to, Chinese political economy and the China Model, BRICS and global multipolarity, South-South cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as US-China geopolitics and international relations. This session provides an opportunity for scholars of China and the Global South, from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, to share their research and have open-ended discussions about the changing global political economy and potential new directions for future research. We also plan to reach out to reputable journals in political science and sociology to discuss the possibility of publishing a special issue based on the papers presented in our session, assuming the works are of high quality. Three of the co-organizers may each have a working paper to present in this session, with other spots open to calling for abstract submissions.

Multipolarity, New State Capitalism, and Transnational Corporate Networks in the Twenty-First Century: David Chen (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Much of the globalization argument – as exemplified by Thomas Friedman’s famous flat world thesis – about world integration, free trade, and the emergence of a transnational society beyond national borders, was established during the golden era of globalization, which lasted roughly from the 1980s to the 2008 global financial crisis. Winds have changed as the world has dived into the second and third decades of the twenty-first century. Geopolitical conflicts, resurgent nationalism, the consolidation of power blocs, and trends of anti-/de-globalization have once again dominated international politics. My study builds on the long sociological tradition of studying globalization and global capitalism through the analysis of transnational corporate networks, providing an updated account of how the emerging multipolar world – marked by the rise of China, its Belt and Road Initiative, and the recent expansion of BRICS – have reshaped much of the US-led international order and the traditionally Western-centered global business and corporate elite networks. In doing so, I aim to make a dual contribution: incorporating a geopolitical dimension to the traditional globalization scholarship (which often viewed the territorial and capitalistic logics as oppositional), and reconceptualizing the relational methodology of social network analysis (SNA) through a political geographic and international relations (IR) lens.

Sino-Capitalism and Dependent Development in the Global South: Erdem Kaya (York University)
Abstract: The US informal empire promoted neoliberal globalization in ways that advanced the interests of US/Western multinationals and subordinated the developing economies of the global South. The spatial diffusion of neoliberalism to the periphery proceeded in three partially overlapping waves, each superimposed on a particular historical-structural context that deepened the North-South divide. The first wave derailed the import-substitution industrialization (ISI) model in Latin America, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa and, while the second steered the post-communist transition economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia into the Western orbit. Finally, the third wave, mainly through the IMF's response to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, disembedded autonomy and undermined the developmental state in East and Southeast Asia. Overall, neoliberal globalization has restored Ricardian comparative advantage, blunted industrial policy instruments and narrowed the development space across the global South, leading to premature deindustrialization and trapping them in dependent development, except in a few cases in East Asia. China's state capitalism, or Sino-capitalism, has emerged as a particular form of developmental state, a source of capital and know-how for the developing world, and appears to have not only revitalized South-South cooperation but also provided an alternative to neoliberal capitalism. China's competitive manufacturing exports, foreign direct investment as well as various forms of development finance have created both challenges and opportunities for the global South. Against this background, this paper asks how the expansion of Chinese state capitalism has shaped the North-South divide and fits into the pervasive problem of dependent development in the global South.

Old Lessons, New Horizons: Dependency Theory in the Twenty-First Century: Adam Alimi (York University)
Abstract: The twenty-first century crisis of neoliberalism spawned various experiments in developmentalism. Latin America and Eastern Europe uniquely exemplify this trend in the (semi)-periphery. At the center of this revitalized development project is an implicit rejection of the Washington Consensus, namely the thesis in which comparative advantage and open market policies causes global economic convergence (between the rich and the poor nations). In that sense, the climate harkens back to the period of development theory animating the better part of the 20thcentury. Indeed, the call to renew dependency theory in academia attests to this search for alternative frameworks to explain development challenges, and be the basis for structural change. This paper engages the resurgence of dependency theory, or more accurately paradigm/ research programme. It explores the wide spectrum of institutional and Marxist approaches in their attempts to sharpen the development paradox. It reconsiders old questions of internal versus external factors in the contemporary study of global capitalism. This perspective is all the more important in the seeming horizon of crises and polarity, multi-polarity, and post-neoliberalism more generally. While the scope of this paper is broad mapping out renewed approaches on dependency, special attention is given to more unique and negative perspectives to consider their analytical purchase in these uncertain times. Among other things, these insights help contextualize China’s (alternative?) worldmaking.