Ngai-Ling Sum
Biographic Data
| ID | 331656 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ngai-Ling Sum |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ngai-Ling |
| FAMILY NAME | Sum |
| SIGNATURE | SUM N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lancaster University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4285-1351 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 211 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Ordoliberal Authoritarian Governance in China since 1978
This paper addresses discussions about neoliberalism in China in six steps. First, it critiques the debate between Harvey (2005) and Ong (2006) over the “strange case” of neoliberalism in China as well as the variegated neoliberalization literature. Second, it suggests how a cultural political economy perspective can mediate between abstract-simple and concrete-complex analyses by posing three meso-level questions. Third, these questions enable t…
The production of a trans-regional scale
This entry locates the production of China’s new trans-regional scale of One Belt One Road (OBOR) in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. In response to falling exports and unemployment, the Chinese leadership launched a four trillion Renminbi stimulus package which intensified its property, infrastructure and, later, the financial asset bubbles between 2010 and 2015. This crisis-pronged period coincided with the transfer of leadership and…
Language and critique
We examine Marx's critiques of language, politics, and capitalist political economy and show how these anticipated critical discourse and argumentation analysis and ‘cultural political economy’. Marx studied philology and rhetoric at university and applied their lessons critically. We illustrate this from three texts. The German Ideology critically explores language as practical consciousness, the division of manual and mental labor, the state, h…
Geopolitics
This comment explores the relation between geoeconomics and geopolitics from a critical realist, strategic-relational, and cultural political economy perspective. We disambiguate the 'geo-' family of concepts; introduce a more complex view of sociospatiality that enables a taxonomy of approaches to geopolitical analytical objects and inquiries; and illustrate this from China's Belt and Road Initiative seen as a complex geopolitical imaginary and …
Putting the ‘Amsterdam School’ in its Rightful Place
This article responds to Staricco’s critique of cultural political economy (CPE) for being inherently constructivist because of its emphasis on the ontologically foundational role of semiosis (sense- and meaning-making) in social life. Staricco recommends the Amsterdam School of transnational historical materialism as a more immediately productive and insightful approach to developing a regulationist critique of political economy. Both lines of c…
What is critical
This article describes the meta-theoretical and theoretical foundations of one approach to critique that moves through up to eight analytically distinct steps. This critique begins with the identification of specific discourses and discursive practices and moves progressively toward a critique of ideology and domination and then to a critique of the factors and actors that, through diverse mechanisms of variation, selection and retention, reprodu…
The Makings of Subaltern Subjects
This article examines the emergence since 2011 of the ‘Diaosi’ (loser) identity among second-generation migrant workers in China. This subjective identification of a new social category with little hope can be contrasted with the hopeful policy constructions of a strong China eager to promote the civilizing ‘suzhi’ (population quality) of its population nationally and internationally. Yet, as this article shows, in four steps, these phenomena are…
Cultural political economy and critical policy studies
This chapter introduces cultural political economy as one among several approaches that explore the interconnected semiotic and structural aspects of social life. The CPE approach belongs in the camp of ‘grand theories’ that, inter alia, offers a preliminary set of basic and sensitizing concepts and positive guidelines that are relevant to historical description, hermeneutic interpretation, and causal explanation. It combines critical, historical…
Cultural turns and beyond in political economy
The cultural turn in political economy could well be interpreted as a cultural return. As noted in the Introduction, classical political economy, historical materialism, the German Historical School and 'old institutionalisms' included the cultural moment of political economy as a matter of course, and some, such as the German Historical School, privileged it in the guise of different 'spirits' of capitalism. As economics was reorganized as a spe…
Towards a Cultural Political Economy
This fascinating volume offers a critique of recent institutional and cultural turns in heterodox economics and political economy. Using seven case studies as examples, the authors explore how research on sense- and meaning-making can deepen critical studies in political economy, illuminating its role in critiquing the specific categories, contradictions and crisis-tendencies of capitalism
A cultural political economy of crisis recovery
This paper explores crisis recovery from a cultural political economy (CPE) perspective. It examines the role of (trans-)national forces in constructing BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as drivers for recovery. First, it comments on some 'cultural economy' studies and indicates the value of a CPE approach. Second, it examines the 'BRIC' as a symbolic condensation of 'hope' knowledge and shows how this signifier evolved in three overlapping mom…
Cultural Political Economy
A cultural political economy of transnational knowledge brands
This paper adopts a “cultural political economy” (CPE) approach to examine the production of hegemony and related hegemonic struggles during the socio-spatial changes occurring in the Pearl River Delta. Drawing from the case of Hong Kong/Pearl River Delta, economic restructuring has given rise to the “hollowing out” debate. In face of this debate, two knowledge brands, the Harvard-Porter’s “competitive advantage” (1985) and MIT-Berger-Lester’s “i…
Beyond the Regulation Approach
This book presents a detailed and critical account of the regulation approach in institutional and evolutionary economics. Offering both a theoretical commentary and a range of empirical examples, it identifies the successes and failures of the regulation approach as an explanatory theory, and proposes new guidelines for its further development.
Conclusion
Feature review
Globalization, Regionalization and Cross-Border Regions
Globalization, Regionalization and Cross-Border Modes of Growth in East Asia
Globalization has attracted increasing academic interest. Among the many competing conceptions that exist, some scholars examine it in uniscalar terms as a globalized ‘space of flows’ involving production, finance, trade and culture. Others are more sensitive to the multiscalar nature of globalization. In this regard, some adopt state-centred accounts that focus on the role of the national state in globalization and others have privileged suprana…
Pre-disciplinary and Post-disciplinary Perspectives
Contributors to this forum are invited to write from their own disciplinary perspective on exciting intellectual developments in their field and to assess their implications for contemporary political economy. They should also address how far political economy is (or should become) an interdisciplinary venture. We find it hard to answer these questions, however, because neither co-author identifies with a single discipline. Indeed, we reject the …
An Integral Approach to the Asian 'Crisis
This paper critiques Lo's work on the Asian Crisis (see Spring 1999 issue of Capital & Class) and offers a regulationist alternative. This suggests there was a certain structural coherence between the production and financial forms in the post-Plaza period and that this productive-financial configuration was prone to crises of overproduction-underconsumption, overborrowing, and exchange weaknesses. This vulnerability was exacerbated by specific c…
An Entrepreneurial City in Action
The paper applies a Schumpeterian analysis of entrepreneurial cities to Hong Kong. It argues that the concept of entrepreneurship can be applied to cities as strategic actors, identifies various objects of urban entrepreneurship, and refers to the important role of entrepreneurial discourses, narratives and self-images. Despite its laissez-faire reputation, Hong Kong has a long history of urban entrepreneurship, but its strategies have been adapt…
The NICs and Competing Strategies of East Asian Regionalism
An Entrepreneurial City in Action
The paper applies a Schumpeterian analysis of entrepreneurial cities to Hong Kong. It argues that the concept of entrepreneurship can be applied to cities as strategic actors, identifies various objects of urban entrepreneurship, and refers to the important role of entrepreneurial discourses, narratives and self-images. Despite its laissez-faire reputation, Hong Kong has a long history of urban entrepreneurship, but its strategies have been adapt…
Pre-disciplinary and Post-disciplinary Perspectives
Contributors to this forum are invited to write from their own disciplinary perspective on exciting intellectual developments in their field and to assess their implications for contemporary political economy. They should also address how far political economy is (or should become) an interdisciplinary venture. We find it hard to answer these questions, however, because neither co-author identifies with a single discipline. Indeed, we reject the …
A cultural political economy of crisis recovery
This paper explores crisis recovery from a cultural political economy (CPE) perspective. It examines the role of (trans-)national forces in constructing BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as drivers for recovery. First, it comments on some 'cultural economy' studies and indicates the value of a CPE approach. Second, it examines the 'BRIC' as a symbolic condensation of 'hope' knowledge and shows how this signifier evolved in three overlapping mom…
Cultural Political Economy
Putting the ‘Amsterdam School’ in its Rightful Place
This article responds to Staricco’s critique of cultural political economy (CPE) for being inherently constructivist because of its emphasis on the ontologically foundational role of semiosis (sense- and meaning-making) in social life. Staricco recommends the Amsterdam School of transnational historical materialism as a more immediately productive and insightful approach to developing a regulationist critique of political economy. Both lines of c…
What is critical
This article describes the meta-theoretical and theoretical foundations of one approach to critique that moves through up to eight analytically distinct steps. This critique begins with the identification of specific discourses and discursive practices and moves progressively toward a critique of ideology and domination and then to a critique of the factors and actors that, through diverse mechanisms of variation, selection and retention, reprodu…
The Makings of Subaltern Subjects
This article examines the emergence since 2011 of the ‘Diaosi’ (loser) identity among second-generation migrant workers in China. This subjective identification of a new social category with little hope can be contrasted with the hopeful policy constructions of a strong China eager to promote the civilizing ‘suzhi’ (population quality) of its population nationally and internationally. Yet, as this article shows, in four steps, these phenomena are…
Geopolitics
This comment explores the relation between geoeconomics and geopolitics from a critical realist, strategic-relational, and cultural political economy perspective. We disambiguate the 'geo-' family of concepts; introduce a more complex view of sociospatiality that enables a taxonomy of approaches to geopolitical analytical objects and inquiries; and illustrate this from China's Belt and Road Initiative seen as a complex geopolitical imaginary and …
A cultural political economy of transnational knowledge brands
This paper adopts a “cultural political economy” (CPE) approach to examine the production of hegemony and related hegemonic struggles during the socio-spatial changes occurring in the Pearl River Delta. Drawing from the case of Hong Kong/Pearl River Delta, economic restructuring has given rise to the “hollowing out” debate. In face of this debate, two knowledge brands, the Harvard-Porter’s “competitive advantage” (1985) and MIT-Berger-Lester’s “i…
Language and critique
We examine Marx's critiques of language, politics, and capitalist political economy and show how these anticipated critical discourse and argumentation analysis and ‘cultural political economy’. Marx studied philology and rhetoric at university and applied their lessons critically. We illustrate this from three texts. The German Ideology critically explores language as practical consciousness, the division of manual and mental labor, the state, h…
Ordoliberal Authoritarian Governance in China since 1978
This paper addresses discussions about neoliberalism in China in six steps. First, it critiques the debate between Harvey (2005) and Ong (2006) over the “strange case” of neoliberalism in China as well as the variegated neoliberalization literature. Second, it suggests how a cultural political economy perspective can mediate between abstract-simple and concrete-complex analyses by posing three meso-level questions. Third, these questions enable t…
An Integral Approach to the Asian 'Crisis
This paper critiques Lo's work on the Asian Crisis (see Spring 1999 issue of Capital & Class) and offers a regulationist alternative. This suggests there was a certain structural coherence between the production and financial forms in the post-Plaza period and that this productive-financial configuration was prone to crises of overproduction-underconsumption, overborrowing, and exchange weaknesses. This vulnerability was exacerbated by specific c…
The NICs and Competing Strategies of East Asian Regionalism
An Entrepreneurial City in Action
The paper applies a Schumpeterian analysis of entrepreneurial cities to Hong Kong. It argues that the concept of entrepreneurship can be applied to cities as strategic actors, identifies various objects of urban entrepreneurship, and refers to the important role of entrepreneurial discourses, narratives and self-images. Despite its laissez-faire reputation, Hong Kong has a long history of urban entrepreneurship, but its strategies have been adapt…
Pre-disciplinary and Post-disciplinary Perspectives
Contributors to this forum are invited to write from their own disciplinary perspective on exciting intellectual developments in their field and to assess their implications for contemporary political economy. They should also address how far political economy is (or should become) an interdisciplinary venture. We find it hard to answer these questions, however, because neither co-author identifies with a single discipline. Indeed, we reject the …
An Integral Approach to the Asian 'Crisis
This paper critiques Lo's work on the Asian Crisis (see Spring 1999 issue of Capital & Class) and offers a regulationist alternative. This suggests there was a certain structural coherence between the production and financial forms in the post-Plaza period and that this productive-financial configuration was prone to crises of overproduction-underconsumption, overborrowing, and exchange weaknesses. This vulnerability was exacerbated by specific c…
Globalization, Regionalization and Cross-Border Regions
Globalization, Regionalization and Cross-Border Modes of Growth in East Asia
Globalization has attracted increasing academic interest. Among the many competing conceptions that exist, some scholars examine it in uniscalar terms as a globalized ‘space of flows’ involving production, finance, trade and culture. Others are more sensitive to the multiscalar nature of globalization. In this regard, some adopt state-centred accounts that focus on the role of the national state in globalization and others have privileged suprana…
Feature review
Beyond the Regulation Approach
This book presents a detailed and critical account of the regulation approach in institutional and evolutionary economics. Offering both a theoretical commentary and a range of empirical examples, it identifies the successes and failures of the regulation approach as an explanatory theory, and proposes new guidelines for its further development.
Conclusion
Cultural Political Economy
A cultural political economy of transnational knowledge brands
This paper adopts a “cultural political economy” (CPE) approach to examine the production of hegemony and related hegemonic struggles during the socio-spatial changes occurring in the Pearl River Delta. Drawing from the case of Hong Kong/Pearl River Delta, economic restructuring has given rise to the “hollowing out” debate. In face of this debate, two knowledge brands, the Harvard-Porter’s “competitive advantage” (1985) and MIT-Berger-Lester’s “i…
Cultural turns and beyond in political economy
The cultural turn in political economy could well be interpreted as a cultural return. As noted in the Introduction, classical political economy, historical materialism, the German Historical School and 'old institutionalisms' included the cultural moment of political economy as a matter of course, and some, such as the German Historical School, privileged it in the guise of different 'spirits' of capitalism. As economics was reorganized as a spe…
Towards a Cultural Political Economy
This fascinating volume offers a critique of recent institutional and cultural turns in heterodox economics and political economy. Using seven case studies as examples, the authors explore how research on sense- and meaning-making can deepen critical studies in political economy, illuminating its role in critiquing the specific categories, contradictions and crisis-tendencies of capitalism
A cultural political economy of crisis recovery
This paper explores crisis recovery from a cultural political economy (CPE) perspective. It examines the role of (trans-)national forces in constructing BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as drivers for recovery. First, it comments on some 'cultural economy' studies and indicates the value of a CPE approach. Second, it examines the 'BRIC' as a symbolic condensation of 'hope' knowledge and shows how this signifier evolved in three overlapping mom…
Cultural political economy and critical policy studies
This chapter introduces cultural political economy as one among several approaches that explore the interconnected semiotic and structural aspects of social life. The CPE approach belongs in the camp of ‘grand theories’ that, inter alia, offers a preliminary set of basic and sensitizing concepts and positive guidelines that are relevant to historical description, hermeneutic interpretation, and causal explanation. It combines critical, historical…
What is critical
This article describes the meta-theoretical and theoretical foundations of one approach to critique that moves through up to eight analytically distinct steps. This critique begins with the identification of specific discourses and discursive practices and moves progressively toward a critique of ideology and domination and then to a critique of the factors and actors that, through diverse mechanisms of variation, selection and retention, reprodu…
The Makings of Subaltern Subjects
This article examines the emergence since 2011 of the ‘Diaosi’ (loser) identity among second-generation migrant workers in China. This subjective identification of a new social category with little hope can be contrasted with the hopeful policy constructions of a strong China eager to promote the civilizing ‘suzhi’ (population quality) of its population nationally and internationally. Yet, as this article shows, in four steps, these phenomena are…
Putting the ‘Amsterdam School’ in its Rightful Place
This article responds to Staricco’s critique of cultural political economy (CPE) for being inherently constructivist because of its emphasis on the ontologically foundational role of semiosis (sense- and meaning-making) in social life. Staricco recommends the Amsterdam School of transnational historical materialism as a more immediately productive and insightful approach to developing a regulationist critique of political economy. Both lines of c…
The production of a trans-regional scale
This entry locates the production of China’s new trans-regional scale of One Belt One Road (OBOR) in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. In response to falling exports and unemployment, the Chinese leadership launched a four trillion Renminbi stimulus package which intensified its property, infrastructure and, later, the financial asset bubbles between 2010 and 2015. This crisis-pronged period coincided with the transfer of leadership and…
Language and critique
We examine Marx's critiques of language, politics, and capitalist political economy and show how these anticipated critical discourse and argumentation analysis and ‘cultural political economy’. Marx studied philology and rhetoric at university and applied their lessons critically. We illustrate this from three texts. The German Ideology critically explores language as practical consciousness, the division of manual and mental labor, the state, h…
Geopolitics
This comment explores the relation between geoeconomics and geopolitics from a critical realist, strategic-relational, and cultural political economy perspective. We disambiguate the 'geo-' family of concepts; introduce a more complex view of sociospatiality that enables a taxonomy of approaches to geopolitical analytical objects and inquiries; and illustrate this from China's Belt and Road Initiative seen as a complex geopolitical imaginary and …
Ordoliberal Authoritarian Governance in China since 1978
This paper addresses discussions about neoliberalism in China in six steps. First, it critiques the debate between Harvey (2005) and Ong (2006) over the “strange case” of neoliberalism in China as well as the variegated neoliberalization literature. Second, it suggests how a cultural political economy perspective can mediate between abstract-simple and concrete-complex analyses by posing three meso-level questions. Third, these questions enable t…
Political science (20 works) · Politics (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Economics (13 works) · Law (13 works) · China (9 works) · Social science (9 works) · Economic system (8 works) · Economy (8 works) · Political economy (8 works)