Brazil and China going global: emerging issues and questions to explore knowledge and policy transfers

ABSTRACT

Most research in policy transfer studies focused on cases of policies originating from the ‘Global North’. However, recently countries of the ‘Global South’ became sources of models. With the exception of a few studies, literature has not considered these developments. This paper aims at contributing to this direction, by proposing an agenda drawn from policy transfer studies as well as from the observation of Brazil’s and China’s engagement in policy transfer. This exercise helps highlight a series of aspects overlooked by the literature. Understanding their motivations, their timing and other important aspects related to these processes can shed new light on policy transfer phenomena. New research questions are introduced and illustrated by examples from Brazil and China.

KEYWORDS:

• public policy
• Brazil
• China
• policy transfer
• knowledge transfer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. There is a vast discussion about which countries are part of the ‘Global South’ and about the inclusion of China in this group. In this article, we do not engage with this debate, considering the limitations of space and the scope of our research. We chose to include this country in the Global South following the contributions of other scholars that have researched the phenomenon of SSC and the emergence of new agents in development cooperation. In these studies, China is considered a member of the Global South as it promotes alternatives to the policies and practices of the Global North (Gray and Gills 2016) and challenges ‘global norms and structures’ (Mawsdley 2017, 177).

2. There are a few exceptions, such as the work of Brooks (2004) on the privatization of pension systems.

3. We thank Reviewer 2 for this suggestion.

4. We acknowledge that there is also a vast literature on diffusion in other areas such as, inter alia, sociology, law, economy, history, geography. However, it is not possible to take all into account, considering the limitations of space and scope of this article. We encourage authors in the future to build multidisciplinary bridges to expand our knowledge on policy transfer.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giulia C. Romano

Giulia C. Romano is a post-doctoral researcher and assistant to the chair of Political Science and Politics of East Asia/China at the Institute of Political Science and Institute of East Asian Studies of the University of Duisburg-Essen. She holds a PhD from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Paris). She received her BA in International Cooperation and Development Studies and her MA in European Studies from the University of Turin (Italy). She also holds a BA degree in Chinese language and literature from the University Paris VII-Denis Diderot (France). Her main research fields are public policy analysis and public administration, with a focus on urban policies and city administrations. Her research interests include knowledge, policy and technology transfers between China and Europe, with a focus on questions of sustainable urban development and smart city development. Some of her most recent publications include the edited volume Brazil and China in Knowledge and Policy Transfer (with Osmany Porto de Oliveira, Palgrave MacMillan 2022) and the monograph Changing Urban Renewal Policies in China – Policy Transfer and Policy Learning under Multiple Hierarchies (Palgrave MacMillan 2020).

Osmany Porto de Oliveira

Osmany Porto de Oliveira is Tenured Assistant Professor in the International Relations Department at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). He holds a PhD in Political Science, from the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris III (2015) and the University of São Paulo (2013). He received the Early Career Award of the International Public Policy Association – IPPA (Montreal, Canada, 2019) and the Young Researcher Award of the European Council for Social Research on Latin America – CEISAL (Porto, Portugal, 2013). His main books are: Handbook of Policy Transfer, Diffusion and Circulation (Edward Elgar, 2021); Latin America and Policy Diffusion (Routledge, 2020), with C. Osorio, S. Montero and C. Leite; International Policy Diffusion and Participatory Budgeting (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). He is also Associate Editor of Policy Sciences and member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Policy and Politics. His research centers on policy transfer, international organizations and development cooperation.