Articulating Globalization: Exploring the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) Terrain

Abstract

Notwithstanding the ‘yawns of familiarity’ that globalization produces in some circles, there is little doubt that ‘globalization’ continues to provide direction and momentum to much of the present social and political configurations. With this in mind, the present study attempts to come to terms with globalization in one particular site: the much acclaimed bottom/base of the pyramid (BOP) approach. Employing Stuart Hall’s notion of articulation, I examine some of the ‘foundational’ BOP texts to understand how and to what ends globalization is constituted within the BOP project. Extrapolating from themes like markets, capitalism, poverty, and technology, the article attempts to highlight what remains unsaid and inexplicit about ‘globalization.’ At one level, the article explores the ‘metapragmatics of globalization’ (how account/talk about global phenomenon are put to use in different contexts), and, at another level, it offers a critical examination of some of the underlying themes of the BOP proposition. Broadly, the article argues that despite its commitment to contesting dominant forms of globalization, the BOP project shows solidarity with a remarkably reductive view of globalization, and in so doing becomes complicit in maintaining status quo thereby re-inscribing (unwittingly) long standing patterns of marginalization. In the spirit of ‘hermeneutics of emergence,’ the article calls for greater self-reflexivity within the BOP domain which, among other things, would help problematize its central themes and ideas in ways that are, perhaps, more adequate to thinking about the fraught relationship between business and poverty.