[IIPPE 2014] Minerals and Energy Complex and Comparative Industrialisation Working Group

Deadlines for Both Panel Calls

• 20 March 2014: Deadline for abstracts (maximum of 500 words) to be considered for the proposed panels

Abstracts submitted via the electronic form at www.iippe.org before the 1st April may also be considered. Please visit www.iippe.org for further information on the conference including deadlines

• 1 May 2014: Author notification concerning acceptance
• 1 September 2014: Deadline for submission of full paper

MECCI Panel 1 – Emerging conflicts in response to the crisis in extractive accumulation and Alternatives

Submission for internal call: Samantha Ashman (pdf5@uj.ac.za) & Basani Baloyi (bbasibal@yahoo.co.uk)

Last years heavily attended MECCI panel explored the contradictions rooted in South Africa’s minerals and energy complex system of accumulation that gave rise to the violent attack on striking miners in Marikana by security forces. However, violence in response to the crisis of extractive accumulation is not unique to South Africa as 40 percent of civil wars in the last six decades have been fuelled by the exploitation of extractive industries. This year’s call opens the dialogue beyond the borders of Marikana to explore other cases of violent conflict rooted in extractive industries both within South Africa and beyond. Papers must build on theory and evidence to locate and analyse the unique emergence and functioning of case study systems of accumulation, their contradictions and how these erupt into violent conflict by exploring strategies by capital and labour, public and private security forces, and other agencies. This call will also welcome papers that explore strategies, policies and theories that promote alternatives to extractive accumulation that catalyse the violence reproduced by the contradictions in their systems of accumulation.

MECCI Panel 2 – Emerging Paradigms and new challenges to debates on industrialisation and industrial policy

Lotta Takala Greenish (Lotta.Takala-Greenish@wits.ac.za) and Susan Newman (newman@iss.nl)

Leading on from the above quote, these debates seek to understand developments in global manufacturing, and the implications for understanding industrialisation processes and industrial policy. Examples of recent developments include: the de-industrialisation of established industrial bases and relocation of manufacturing (for example based on cost reduction or proximity to market), the compartmentalisation and division of manufacturing activities into distinct segments within a production or supply chain, changes in the role and form of industrial and speculative finance, trends in labour, but also shifts in power both within industries or production chains, or changes in economic relations within the domestic, regional or global spheres. In parallel and in response, the literature seeking to explain these developments has also seen the emergence of new theoretical concepts such as the New Structural Economics, the increased use of notions such as value chains or global production networks, but also debates around specific challenges such as infrastructure, market access (especially trade agreements), questions of technology or innovation, or issues of pollution or labour changes to name a few. The industrial policy literature has also experienced a boost, especially in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis challenging the supremacy of market and in particular price mechanisms. Another often empirical strand of the literature has focused on understanding comparative and regional developments either across specific industrial activities, value chains, or across countries, shared markets or regions. Though the renewed interest in industry as an engine of growth is welcome, the debates remain framed within views based on notions of comparative advantage and theorisation focusing on either the relative merits of market as opposed to non-market mechanisms and roles for policy or other intervention based on this analytical dualism.

This panel invites contributions that explore the theoretical, comparative, and policy developments around understanding industrialisation with a view to identifying new empirical findings as well as new thinking on appropriate analytical frameworks.