Cultural political economy of competitiveness, competition, and competition policy in Asia

Sum, Ngai-Ling (2015) Cultural political economy of competitiveness, competition, and competition policy in Asia. Distinktion - Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 16 (2). pp. 211-228. ISSN 1600-910X

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Abstract

This article employs cultural political economy to explore, interpret, and explain the articulation of competition, competitiveness, and competition policies in Asia in the current neo-liberal era. It describes how this approach explores social order and change in terms of the interaction between semiosis and structuration in the context of four types of selectivity: structural, agential, discursive, and technological. It then outlines an analytical framework and methodology to apply this approach to the chosen case study. This concerns how these modes of selectivity have operated since the 1997 ‘Asian Crisis’ to produce changes in the policy discourses and practices of the World Bank and its Asian regional agencies with the declared aim of reducing poverty, enhancing competitiveness, and promoting corresponding forms of competition policy. Next it examines how these discourses and practices are assembling a new dispositive around an emerging disciplinary and governmentalized socioeconomic-cum-legal order in the wake of the Doha conjuncture in Asia. The concluding remarks address some tensions and challenges in the making of this competitiveness order in Asia.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Distinktion - Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory
Additional Information:
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Distinktion on 16/10/2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1600910X.2015.1059771
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312
Subjects:
?? asian development bankcompetition policycompetitivenesscultural political economydiscoursedispositivepoverty reductionworld banksociology and political sciencesocial sciences (miscellaneous) ??
ID Code:
80610
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
05 Aug 2016 08:34
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
20 Mar 2024 00:36