Financialization, narrow specialization of production and capital accumulation in Mozambique
Title: Financialization, narrow specialization of production and capital accumulation in Mozambique
Author(s): Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco e Diogo Maia
Publication Date: Março de 2022
Publisher: Review of African Political Economy (a member of the Taylor & Francis Publishers)
Quotation: Castel-Branco, Carlos Nuno; and Diogo Maia. 2022. “Financialization, narrow specialization of production and capital accumulation in Mozambique”. Review of African Political Economy, VOL. 49, NO. 171, 46-66 https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2049143
Abstract: https://www.repository.utl.pt/handle/10400.5/23907 The article argues that the historical conditions under which national capitalism developed in post-independence Mozambique pushed the economy towards growing financialisation and narrower specialisation of production around increasingly basic and simple activities. In post-independence Mozambique, national capitalism rose from the ashes of state-centred accumulation built around the dominant social structures of production inherited from colonialism, under the impulse of neoliberal economic reforms and heavy dependency on inflows of private international finance. The speculative dynamics of accumulation prevented diversification and more complex industrialisation which, in turn, reinforced the role of financialisation as a means to and form of accumulation of capital. The paper argues that changing these dynamics of accumulation requires conscious industrial strategies focused on diversification and articulation of production, which cannot be achieved without challenging the extractive mode of accumulation and the power relationships associated with it.
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2049143
Category: Other Publications
In post-independence Mozambique, national capitalism developed from the ashes of state-centred accumulation built around the dominant social structures of production that were inherited from colonialism. These very specific historical conditions weighed heavily on the structures of accumulation, which later were subjected to neoliberal economic reforms, becoming heavily dependent on inflows of private international finance and resulting in growing financialisation of the economy and of the state, alongside increasingly narrow specialisation of production. Narrow specialisation, also called primarisation, consists in the reduction of the number of industries, sectors, activities and products; the concentration of production and trade around a smaller range of primary commodities for export; increasingly basic and simple production processes, products and levels of processing and articulation; and fewer options and capabilities to promote linkages. In turn, financialisation and primarisation reinforced each other in an increasingly speculative mode of accumulation. Starting from the specific analysis of the historical logic of the mode of capital accumulation in Mozambique (Castel-Branco, 2022), Financialization, narrow specialization of production and capital accumulation in Mozambique by Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco and Diogo Maia will demonstrate the dynamics of financialisation and of the growing primarisation of production, and the connection between the two.
Abstract:
The article argues that the historical conditions under which national capitalism developed in post-independence Mozambique pushed the economy towards growing financialisation and narrower specialisation of production around increasingly basic and simple activities. The paper argues that changing these dynamics of accumulation requires conscious industrial strategies focused on diversification and articulation of production, which cannot be achieved without challenging the extractive mode of accumulation and the power relationships associated with it.
Quotation:
Castel-Branco, Carlos Nuno; and Diogo Maia. 2022. “Financialization, narrow specialization of production and capital accumulation in Mozambique”. Review of African Political Economy, VOL. 49, NO. 171, 46-66 https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2049143
Access the article here.
