Africa is said to be rising, turning a definitive page in its history, heralding new and exciting possibilities for the continent. This discourse maintains that with upsurge in economic growth comes improved governance and endogenous dynamics; that the emerging economies, and especially the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), have been instrumental in diversifying Africa's international relations, perhaps leading to a radical change in the global order, favourable to the developing world. But to what extent is this true, and how deep and how broad has been the impact on society at large? This book takes a critical look at the prevalent Africa Rising discourse, and explores the nature and implications of Africa's "rise" and the role that the BRICS have played in it. The author argues that Africa has still to undergo any structural transformation; that there is strong evidence that deindustrialisation and jobless growth have accompanied the upsurge of interest in the continent; and that far from making a radical turn in its developmental trajectory, Africa is being pushed into the resource corner as commodity exporters, to the North (and now, the BRICS) with little scope for industrial progress or skills advancement. Hope that the BRICS might offer an alternative to the extant neoliberal order are misplaced, for the BRICS have a stake in maintaining the current global unequality. Africa must therefore fashion its own independent path - while the emerging economies will be important, relying on external actors may simply reproduce anew the current state of underdevelopment. Ian Taylor is Professor in International Relations and African Politics, University of St Andrews; Chair Professor, Renmin, University of China; Professor Extraordinary, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; Honorary Professor, Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, China; and a Visiting Scholar at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda.

The main thesis of this book is that, given that South African education faces major challenges, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) constellation of states offers — thus far overlooked — a valuable tertium comparationis, a source of international comparative perspectives, to inform the domestic scholarly discourse on education. This book first investigates the national contexts and development of education in the BRICS countries, arguing that this grouping represents a valuable but yet overlooked field for illuminating South African education issues with international perspectives. The book consists of chapters arguing for and illustrating this thesis from a variety of angles. Common to all chapters is that authors used the comparative method in education, that is comparing the national education system, in their education societal context interrelationships, of the BRICS countries. The chapters focus on a number of critical issues in South African education, including the language of learning and teaching issue, the alignment of the world of education with the world of work, early childhood education, and the development of world-class universities. Regarding the last, for example, China has been the terrain of the most intensive national projects of establishing world-class universities, with Project 985, Project 211, and the “Double First Class University” project. The chapters demonstrate what South Africa, in approaching her education issues, can learn from the experience of the BRICS countries.

A critical examination of the contradictory rise to power of emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

A little over a decade ago Africa was being spoken of in the media as the 'lost' or 'hopeless' continent. Now it has some of the fastest growing economies in the world, largely because of the impact of the BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In this first book to be written about the BRICS as a collective phenomenon, Pádraig Carmody reveals how their engagements with Africa, both individually and collectively, are often contradictory, generating new inequalities and potential for development. Crucially, Carmody shows how the geopolitics of the BRICS countries' involvement in Africa is impacted by and impacts upon their international relations more generally, and how the emergence of these economies has begun to alter the very nature of globalization, which is no longer purely a Western-led project. This is a path-breaking examination of Africa's changing role in the world.

Though initially considered a welcome counterweight to Western interest across Africa, the BRICS are increasingly being viewed as another example of foreign interference and exploitation. BRICS and Resistance in Africa explores the varied forms of African resistance being developed in response to the growing influence of the BRICS. Its case studies cover such instances as the opposition to China’s One Belt One Road initiative in East Africa; resistance to the BRICS’ oil activities in the Niger Delta; and the role of the BRICS in Zimbabwe’s political transition. The contributors expose the contradictions between the group’s rhetoric and its real impact, as well as the complicity of local elites in serving as proxies for the BRICS nations. By challenging and expanding the debates surrounding BRICS involvement in Africa, this collection offers new insight into resistance to globalization in the global South.

The book provides an assessment of BRICS cooperation, focusing on the new financing mechanisms created by the BRICS, the monetary fund and the development bank. It is shown that Brazil, Russia, India and China, joined later by South Africa, share common traits that led them to cooperate in the reform of the international financial architecture, especially the G20 and the IMF. After 2012, in light of the difficulty of having advanced countries agree to move from “tinkering at the margins” to fundamental reform of the Bretton Woods institutions, the BRICS decided to establish their own monetary fund, named the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), and their own development bank, named the New Development Bank (NDB). The book describes the difficult negotiations among the BRICS between 2012 and 2014. Some of these difficulties revealed the weaknesses that would lead the CRA and the NDB to make slow progress in the first years of their existence. The book provides an overview of the strong points and weaknesses of the initial phase of these financing mechanisms. It ends with a discussion of the future of the BRICS, highlighting that joint action by the five countries is likely to remain an important feature of the international landscape in the decades to come.

This book stems from the CyberBRICS project, which is the first major attempt to produce a comparative analysis of Internet regulations in the BRICS countries – namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The project has three main objectives: 1) to map existing regulations; 2) to identify best practices; and 3) to develop policy recommendations in the various areas that compose cybersecurity governance, with a particular focus on the strategies adopted by the BRICS countries to date. Each study covers five essential dimensions of cybersecurity: data protection, consumer protection, cybercrime, the preservation of public order, and cyberdefense. The BRICS countries were selected not only for their size and growing economic and geopolitical relevance but also because, over the next decade, projected Internet growth is expected to occur predominantly in these countries. Consequently, the technology, policy and governance arrangements defined by the BRICS countries are likely to impact not only the 3.2 billion people living in them, but also the individuals and businesses that choose to utilize increasingly popular applications and services developed in BRICS countries according to BRICS standards. Researchers, regulators, start-up innovators and other Internet stakeholders will find this book a valuable guide to the inner workings of key cyber policies in this rapidly growing region.