Ever since Jim O'Neill at Goldman Sachs coined the term BRICS in 2001 there have been many different assessments of these major emerging economies, with some even proclaiming that the promise of the BRICS (comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is over. However, the so called 'arranged marriage' still seems to be working well, with the club having become a formal international forum, with summit declarations, ministerial meetings, and numerous BRICS-wide fora. Is this euphoria misplaced? Is there a BRICS model of economic and human development? Are inequalities increasing and is this the denouncement of the economic successes? Are geo-political tensions rising between these nations?
During the post COVID-19 situation, the importance of bilateral and multilateral co-operation mechanisms and institutions is becoming clear. This book focuses on one such emerging co-operation mechanism of BRICS but also more widely on those five countries and other similar economies. As a global depression looms large, global economic recovery depends on the performance of not only its largest economies but also many other important and significant economies within the so called G20 group. Even prior to the COVID-19 outbreak multilateral institutions have been under considerable strain, as with the relationship between the United States of America and China, and risks to global economic recovery appear very real. This book brings together multi-disciplinary perspectives from over sixty scholars and it presents a comprehensive and deep dive into the BRICS and emerging economies and into an understanding the political, economic, and social contexts that can help in designing approaches for recovery and regaining the last momentum in the journey towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
PB Anand, Professor of Public Policy and Sustainable Development, University of Bradford, UK, Shailaja Fennell, Reader, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, UK, Flavio Comim, Associate Professor of Economics, University Ramon Llull/IQS, Spain
P.B. Anand is Professor of Public Policy and Sustainable Development and Head of Peace Studies and International Development at the University of Bradford. He is a member of the Council of the Development Studies Association and a Fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association. He previously worked in a development bank in India and managed an executive education programme portfolio at Bradford for the staff of China Development Bank (2007-13) and the Aga Khan Foundation (2013-15). He was the principal author and team leader of the Mongolia Human Development Report 2011 and contributed to UNDP studies on climate change, extractive economies, and sustainable development. He is the author of
Scarcity, Entitlements and the Economics of Water in Developing Countries (2007) and many papers on global public goods, access to water and smart cities. With Flavio Comim and Shailaja Fennell, he edited
New Frontiers of the Capability Approach (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Shailaja Fennell is Reader in Regional Transformation and Economic Security at the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge. She is a Fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association and a member of the governing council of the Development Studies Association (UK). She has undertaken more than two decades of research in both Asian and African countries, and has been a consultant with the World Bank, DFID, Oxfam and ASEAN. Her previous publications include
Rules, Rubrics and Riches: The Interrelations between Legal Reform and International Development (2010), and she has published papers in the fields of comparative regional development to examine how the lives of rural and urban communities have been affected by the nature and directives of development policy.
Flavio Comim is a Development Economist and an Associate Professor of Economics at the IQS School of Management, Ramon Llull University in Spain and an Affiliated Lecturer at Land Economy University of Cambridge. He has worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and has been a consultant for UNESCO, WHO, UNEP (UN Environment Programme), and ILO in several development projects. He has co-edited several books, including
The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications (2008), with Mozaffar Qizilbash and Sabina Alkire;
Capabilities and Happiness (2008), with Luigino Bruni and Maurizio Pugno;
Capabilities, Gender, Equality (2014), with Martha Nussbaum; and
New Frontiers of Human Development with Shailaja Fennell and P.B. Anand (2018).
