The strange geographies of the 'new' state capitalism. (October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alami, Ilias; Dixon, Adam D.
• Is Part Of: Political geography. Volume 82(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-10
• Subjects: State capitalism -- Critical geopolitics -- State intervention -- State-owned enterprise -- Sovereign wealth fund -- Cold war -- China -- US hegemony -- State-capital hybrid; Political geography -- Periodicals; Géographie politique -- Périodiques; 320.12
• DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102237
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0962-6298

Abstract

Abstract: The recent polymorphism of state intervention and attendant political geographies have been interpreted as a return of state capitalism. While commentators across the social sciences have offered competing characterizations of the new state capitalism, little attention has been dedicated to how narratives and geographical imaginaries of the new state capitalism operate as a form of geopolitical knowledge and practice. Drawing upon critical geopolitics, we make three main arguments. First, we examine the context of wider geopolitical and geo-economic shifts in which the social construction of the geo-category has happened. We contend that the emerging new spatiality of the global economy has prompted the need for new discursive frames and geopolitical lines of reasoning. Second, we argue that this need is fulfilled by the geo-category state capitalism, which acts as a powerful tool in categorizing and hierarchizing the spaces of world politics. It does so by reinstituting a simple narrative of competition between two easily identifiable protagonists – (Western) democratic free-market capitalism and its deviant 'other', (Eastern) authoritarian state capitalism – and by reactivating older geopolitical grand narratives. Third, the geo-category state capitalism discursively enables Western business and state actors to justify tougher policy stances in three areas: foreign policy; trade, technology, and investment regulation; and international development. Highlights: The category state capitalism is rapidly becoming a central geopolitical marker. It acts as a powerful tool in hierarchizing the spaces of world politics. It is saturated with notions of hostility, competition, deviance and abnormality. It reproduces imperial/racialized discourses of a deviant and threatening non-west. It allows policy adjustments in the areas of foreign policy, trade, and development.