Alternative Capitalisms: Geographies of Emerging Regions (review)

The term emerging economy is one frequently applied in political and economic geography circles, but its precise definition or identity remains somewhat elusive and diffuse. When does a country move to emerging status? How does one—statistically or otherwise—distinguish between an emerging economy, an industrialized or developed economy, and a developing economy? Is it based on GDP per capita, economic structure, transnationality, or other factors? Is emerging status merely a stage in a progression to the developed or industrialized level, or does it represent a more permanent, stable, and/or static categorization of particular economies and regions? Are emerging economies the same as the semi-periphery? Are all emerging economies in transition away from socialism and into liberalized democracies and economies, or are they defined in more diverse terms? Most significantly, if there is such a thing as an emerging economy, how can the concept help us to better understand spatial differentiation in the global economy and what Dicken (2004, 6) calls the "syndrome of material processes and outcomes" that constitute globalization?

Alternative Capitalisms addresses these questions through an historical and political-economic study of three so-called emerging regions: Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and East Asia. The textbook is written in clear and accessible language and targets undergraduate students in political and economic geography courses or those interested in more advanced courses in global, international, or development studies. The overarching objective of the text is to apply World Systems Theory (what the authors broadly characterize as an international economy approach where states—not firms—are the key agents of economic change) to help explicate some of the challenges facing emerging market countries (EMCs) and to demonstrate how EMCs represent sites of "alternative capitalisms"—variations on the economic development trajectories experienced in the core economies. A key message is that such variations show how the world economy remains, and will continue to be, highly differentiated and uneven despite the proclamations of hyperglobalists like Thomas Friedman and others. To my mind, communicating this message is vital at the undergraduate level where far too many students view globalization as a homogenous and undifferentiated process whereby technologies, ideas, and resources flow across frictionless space, and where Rostow's developmentalist model is the one-size-fits-all solution for countries in the periphery and semi-periphery.

The book is organized into four parts and fourteen chapters. Part 1 (Chapters 1-3) focuses on defining—in somewhat precise terms—what an emerging economy is, on demonstrating how such economies can be conceptualized through World Systems Theory, and on describing how imperialism and colonialism helped to shape the socio-economic and political landscapes of emerging regions. Most significantly and uniquely, the authors provide a detailed discussion of the problems associated with labeling an economy emerging in the first place. Moving beyond the broad definition of an emerging economy —as one that is transitioning from a non-market to market-based economy—the text examines the specific categorizations applied by such organizations as the International Monetary Fund, the International Finance Corporation, the Institute for International Finance, Internet Securities Limited, and The Economist magazine. In doing so, twenty-two countries are found on at least four of the emerging economy lists generated by these organizations, and these act as the consensus countries forming the basis for the emerging regions studied (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, South Africa, Egypt, Turkey, and India). After all of the analysis about what an emerging market country is, however, the authors ultimately (albeit loosely) classify all middle-income economies as emerging economies and then proceed to focus on the three regions where such countries are clustered.

Part 2 (Chapters 4-6) of the text examines the historical contexts of the regions associated with these three clusters of countries—Central and Eastern Europe and Russia...