GLOBAL SOUTH RISING, BRICS and the reconfiguration of knowledge systems

314pp., graphs, paperback, HSRC Press, Cape Town, 2026

ISBN: 9780796927095

The contributors to this collection address the provocative question of whether BRICS can reconfigure not only the global economy, but also intellectual power structures. They assess the bloc's performance, highlight its challenges and its potential, and invite readers to rethink concepts of power, knowledge, and global co-operation.

"This critical collection is timely and relevant amid Western efforts to stem the tide towards multipolarity. Questioning if BRICS's economic rise signals an epistemic shift in science, technology, politics, and culture, the book offers valuable insights into how intellectual and social forces within the BRICS networks are setting progressive intellectual and social agendas for the Global South and alternatives to a rapidly disintegrating global social order." Professor Blade Nzimande, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation

"This impressive volume by Sitas and Keim brings critical theoretical and empirical rigour to understanding BRICS as a site of emerging multipolarity. At a moment in world history when coercive statecraft dominates the global stage, the book offers a timely and searching account of what becomes possible when nation-states pursue genuinely collective interests." Professor Crain Soudien, former CEO, HSRC, and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UCT

Ari Sitas is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Cape Town and Honorary Professor at the Open Africa Institute at the University of Stellenbosch.

Wiebke Keim is a researcher at France's National Center for Scientific Research, where her work focuses on the internationalization of the social sciences.