Beyond Summits: BRICS and International Financial Institutions in African Academic Discourse – JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES

Author:

Ufimtsev A.A.¹

Affiliation:

1. Centre for African Strategy in BRICS, Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Abstract:

The article contributes to the literature on BRICS and global economic governance by extending the analysis of state strategies and institutional design into the realm of academic discourse. Assuming that academic knowledge is formed under the influence of structural factors, the study aims to identify what determines African scholars’ views on international financial institutions and the BRICS grouping, as well as to examine the concepts and arguments used in their support and criticism. The empirical analysis is based on a corpus of abstracts from publications by African scholars compiled using OpenAlex. Their evaluations of different institutions were quantified using GABRIEL and analyzed through regression and quantitative content analysis. The findings show that BRICS is evaluated significantly more positively than the IMF and the World Bank, toward which a moderately critical stance prevails. Variation in evaluations is primarily explained by countries’ level of economic development, while foreign policy alignment and formal BRICS membership show no statistically significant effect. The content analysis reveals that despite BRICS being a flexible grouping rather than an economic union or free trade agreement, its support and criticism in African academic discourse are predominantly framed in economic terms, through arguments about development, trade, and investment. Authors’ perceptions of different financial institutions also vary according to their academic affiliations: collaboration with Western scholars correlates with more favorable views of the IMF and World Bank, while ties to BRICS are linked to more positive perceptions of BRICS.

Keywords:

global governance, BRICS, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, academic discourse, Africa, development, knowledge production, global economic institutions, international financial institutions

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For citation:

Ufimtsev A.A. (2026). Beyond Summits: BRICS and International Financial Institutions in African Academic Discourse. Journal of the Institute for African Studies. Vol. 12. № 2. Pp. 5–25. https://doi.org/10.31132/2412-5717-2026-75-2-5-25

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