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Bonn Juego PhD Fellow Global Development Studies Aalborg University, Denmark

THE CULTURE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, OR THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CULTURE The Constitution of Cultural Diversity in Southeast Asian Development Strategies (A RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY AGENDA). Bonn Juego PhD Fellow Global Development Studies Aalborg University, Denmark E-mail: bonn@ihis.aau.dk

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Bonn Juego PhD Fellow Global Development Studies Aalborg University, Denmark

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  1. THE CULTURE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY,ORTHE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CULTUREThe Constitution of Cultural Diversity in Southeast Asian Development Strategies(A RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY AGENDA) Bonn Juego PhD Fellow Global Development Studies Aalborg University, Denmark E-mail: bonn@ihis.aau.dk 30 April 2009 55 Bandung 55 Conference Jakarta, Indonesia

  2. RESEARCH PROBLEM How is cultural diversity constituted in the domestic development strategies of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore? WHY?

  3. OPERATIONALISATION • Cultural Diversity Plurality of shared identities, of groups of people with shared culture, making up a society

  4. OPERATIONALISATION • Constitution of Cultural Diversity (How is cultural diversity constituted?) • Gramsci (1971) – Formation of new social regime: • either “ORGANIC”, • or “ARBITRARY, RATIONALISTIC, AND WILLED” Depending on the regime's success/failure to realise “STRUCTURED COHERENCE” among 'the political', 'the economic', and 'the cultural'

  5. HYPOTHESIS Culture of Political Economy, or the Political Economy of Culture? The drive for global capitalist competitiveness transcends the nature of cultural diversity. (Capitalism can exist with or without cultural diversity.)

  6. SCOPE Post-1997 Southeast AsiaGlobal Political Economy of Development, 1980s - 2009(General Characteristics) Washington Consensus (1st Generation Neo-liberal Reforms, 1980s - mid-1990’s)‏ Scope: Limited macroeconomic policies Goal: ‘open market economy’ Approach: ‘shock’ tactics; ‘sound macroeconomic principles’ • SAPs (privatisation, deregulation, liberalisation, etc)‏ • Rollback of the state Post-Washington Consensus (2nd Generation Neo-liberal Reforms, mid-1990’s - 2009)‏ Scope: broader, more extensive and intrusive policies Goal: ‘global competitiveness’ Approach: ‘deep’ institutional and behavioural/cultural change • ‘flexible’ labour, ‘human capital’ • ‘social capital’: non-market responses to market imperfections

  7. Diverse Southeast Asian Cases:Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore

  8. Diverse Social Relations in Southeast AsiaDiverse Political Regimes, Economic Structures, and Cultural Orientations

  9. Evolutionary Economics National Systems of Innovation (NSI) Approaches Freeman-Lundvall-Nelson: focus on developed, relatively homogenous, Scandinavian societies GAP Explore idea of 'tacit knowledge' culture and cultural diversity for Third World development LITERATURES ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY Business Studies • Causality between: • Culturally-diverse workforce; and • Firm's organisation, behaviour, performance GAP • Theory of the firm • No such thing as “representative firm” • Focus on factors exogenous to firms

  10. Social sciences and economics • Discursive • “culturalisation of economic life” • “cultural materialism” • Reification of the market • Abstraction of the economy into mathematical calculations GAP • Context-specific phenomena; • Ideational-Material nexus (International) Political Economy • Aglietta-Lipietz-Boyer: “French Régulation Approach” • US & Europe (Atlantic Fordism); • Latin America ('populist' ISI); • East Asia (developmental state)‏ • Post-régulation approach • “transnational state”: outside-in approach GAP • Dynamism and specificity of Southeast Asia • Internal reorganisation of the state • Regional and intra-regional variation in a broadly comparative framework

  11. CONSTITUTIVE Discourse:Culture in Political Economy of Development “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.” (Daniel Patrick Moynihan)‏

  12. “Asian Values” and Development:A Constitutive Dominant Discourse

  13. NORMATIVE Discourse:Culture for Political Economy of Development • Amartya Sen: “Development as freedom” Culture is among development's ends and means. • Culture is development; and development is culture. • As means: Using culture for development because of its considerable importance. • As ends: Culture as an expression of the 'good life'.

  14. Culture in Contemporary Development Strategies • Aalborg School: 'learning economy' – tacit knowledge (Bengt-Åke Lundvall, et al.)‏ • National Systems of Innovation • Culture embodies 'tacit knowledge'. • 'tacit knowledge': 'know-how' (skills) embedded in culture – difficult to transmit, cannot be codified, or written down • Culture as source of 'Competitive Advantage' (Michael Porter, et al.)‏ • Globalisation: allows sourcing from anywhere • 'Economic culture': hard-to-imitate competitive advantage (a niche market)‏ • Cultural differences give rise to distinctive product and services (international specialisation)

  15. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES To examine the constitutive role of cultural diversity in development strategies 1. co-evolution of the ideational and material aspects intrinsic in the development process • Overcoming reductionism or essentialism 2. cultural diversity in the political economy of development and the specificity of the Southeast Asian region • Highlighting factors, phenomena, processes left unstated, repressed, and marginalised in official dominant discourses

  16. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKCPE + EDE • Critical Political Economy • Development as a “social relation” – both “ideational” and “material” • SOCIAL RELATIONS: ‘the political’, ‘the economic’, ‘the cultural’, ‘the ecological’, ‘the gender’, and all the other spheres of the society are organically connected to, not separate from, one another • Evolutionary Development Economics • non-equilibrium, non-physics based, and non-mathematical approach to economic phenomena • focus on the economy, and noteconomics • ‘social variables’ (state, culture, civil society, values, etc.) excluded in mainstream economics CPE + EDE: Cultural diversity in the development strategies of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore across time and space • Differences and specificities in national situations in particular historical moment in the context of social relations

  17. METHODOLOGYCulture of political economy,or Political Economy of culture? Social regime: either ‘organic’, or ‘arbitrary, rationalistic, and willed’ • Culture of political economy (organic)‏ • Political Economy of culture (willed)‏ • Extensive reference • Official documents and development plans: • Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore (post-1997 crisis)‏ • Policy papers and reports: Multilateral institutions and regional associations - WB, IMF, WTO, UN, ADB, APEC, ASEAN • domestic social forces in policy advice and policy-making

  18. PRELIMINARIES: (Culture & Capitalist Development)UNESCOUniversal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001)‏ • Art. 3: Cultural diversity as a factor in development “Cultural diversity widens the range of options open to everyone; it is one of the roots of development, understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence.” • Art. 8: Cultural goods and services: commodities of a unique kind

  19. PRELIMINARIES: (Culture & Capitalist Development) ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANKFDI Regimes: Some Stylized Facts Asian Development Outlook 2004 • Feature • FDI History • FDI Presence • Trade Regime • International Connections • FDI Regime in Practice • Institutional Quality • Human Capital • 'Cultural diversity': implicit in the idea of “human capital”.

  20. PRELIMINARIES: (Culture & Capitalist Development) WORLD BANKSocial Capital: The missing link in development • Sources of Social Capital • families, communities, firms, civil society, public sector, ethnicity, gender • Social Capital Implementation Framework (SCIF)‏ • Social Capital: 'norms and networks that enable collective action' 5 Key Dimensions of Social Capital 1. Groups and networks (to promote and protect personal relationships)‏ 2. Trust and Solidarity (to foster cohesion and collective action)‏ 3. Collective Action and Cooperation (to resolve communal issues)‏ 4. Social Cohesion and Inclusion (to mitigate risk of conflict thru participation)‏ 5. Information and Communication (to improve access to information)‏

  21. COMMENT: Since 1990 the Washington Institutions have provided a string of red herrings... ‘get the prices right’ ‘get the property rights right’ ‘get the institutions right’ ‘get the governance right’ ‘get the competitiveness right’ ‘get the innovations right’ ‘get the entrepreneurship right’ ‘get the education right’ ’get the climate right’ ’get the diseases right’ ‘get the culture right’ Missing dimension:‘GET THE ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES RIGHT’

  22. Co-evolution of material and ideational: • constitutive role of cultural diversity in development strategies 1. Origin: historical question 2. Evolution (process of change): conjoint impact • Specificities of Southeast Asia • national differences within a broadly comparative framework CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE OF THIS RESEARCH AGENDA Culture Political Economy

  23. Analysing the constitution of cultural diversitywithin social relations in which it is constituted...

  24. OVERALL CONTRIBUTION OF THIS RESEARCH AGENDA • Co-evolution of material and ideational • constitutive role of cultural diversity in development strategies • Specificities of Southeast Asia • national differences within a broadly comparative framework • Exploration of appropriate “social relations” for real development • “polity-economy-culture” blend in harmonious synergy —Bonn Juego - 30 April 2009, Jakarta (bonnjuego@yahoo.com)‏

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