Emerging powers development, global economic crisis and value chains restructuring

This chapter studies the relationship between the development of emerging powers (EP) and the restructuring of economic networks before and after the recent economic crisis. It looks at some of the effects of the restructuring process on structural change and emerging powers’ economic role, addressing different dimensions of inequality which are spreading in spite of many predictions. I argue that the main obstacle to thwart this increasing inequality lies in the hegemony of ‘conventional wisdom’ which is recovering ground after the global economic crisis. In this attempt to examine the economic consequences of the global crisis for the role of EP, I will focus mainly on qualitative aspects. The first section focuses on some features of EP expansion before the crisis, relevant for understanding the trend after the crisis. The second section examines the sequence of changes in the approach to economic development policy. In the final section, some aspects of the dual attitude of the EU in a world in which EP are gaining more and more strength will be analyzed. The conclusion tries to point out the main consequences in terms of inequality associated with ‘conventional wisdom’, which will remain dominant in the near future.