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Journal ArticleDOI

Seeing and not-seeing like a political economist : the historicity of contemporary political economy and its blind spots

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look back to the history of political economy and at the ways in which we have come to tell that history, in order to understand how we got to the present moment and identify the key blind spots in the field and make sense of how many scholars missed or misconstrued important dynamics that define contemporary capitalism and the other systems and sources of social inequality that characterise our present.
Abstract: Contemporary political economy is predicated on widely shared ideas and assumptions, some explicit but many implicit, about the past. Our aim in this Special Issue is to draw attention to, and to assess critically, these historical assumptions. In doing so, we hope to contribute to a political economy that is more attentive to the analytic assumptions on which it is premised, more aware of the potential oversights, biases, and omissions they contain, and more reflexive about the potential costs of these blind spots. This is an Introduction to one of two Special Issues that are being published simultaneously by New Political Economy and Review of International Political Economy reflecting on blind spots in international political economy. Together, these Special Issues seek to identify the key blind spots in the field and to make sense of how many scholars missed or misconstrued important dynamics that define contemporary capitalism and the other systems and sources of social inequality that characterise our present. This particular Special Issue pursues this goal by looking backwards, to the history of political economy and at the ways in which we have come to tell that history, in order to understand how we got to the present moment.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A Critical Rewriting of Global Political Economy: Integrating Reproductive, Productive and Virtual Economies as discussed by the authors is a critical rewriting of global political economy that integrates reproductive, productive and virtual economies.
Abstract: A Critical Rewriting of Global Political Economy: Integrating Reproductive, Productive and Virtual Economies.

154 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a double special issue on blind spots in International Political Economy (IPE) is presented, focusing on issues such as institutionalized racism and misogyny, the rise of big tech, intensifying corporate power, expertise-dynamics in global governance, assetization, and climate change.
Abstract: Which blind spots shape scholarship in International Political Economy (IPE)? That question animates the contributions to a double special issue—one in the Review of International Political Economy, and a companion one in New Political Economy. The global financial crisis had seemed to vindicate broad-ranging IPE perspectives at the expense of narrow economics theories. Yet the tumultuous decade since then has confronted IPE scholars with rapidly-shifting global dynamics, many of which had remained underappreciated. We use the Blind Spots moniker in an attempt to push the topics covered here higher up the scholarly agenda—issues that range from institutionalized racism and misogyny to the rise of big tech, intensifying corporate power, expertise-dynamics in global governance, assetization, and climate change. Gendered and racial inequalities as blind spots have a particular charge. There has been a self-reinforcing correspondence between topics that have counted as important, people to whom they matter personally, and the latter’s ability to build careers on them. In that sense, our mission is not only to highlight collective blind spots that may dull IPE’s capacity to theorize the current moment. It is also a normative one—a form of disciplinary housekeeping to help correct both intellectual and professional entrenched biases.

31 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The growing political salience of economic nationalism after the 2008 financial crisis has strengthened arguments made in pre-crisis political economy (PE) scholarship about the enduring importance of political economy as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The growing political salience of economic nationalism after the 2008 financial crisis has strengthened arguments made in pre-crisis political economy (PE) scholarship about the enduring importance...

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that the role of antisemitism in the populist backlash to financial power represents an empirical blind spot in IPE and that the uncertainty and complexity of finance is a major obstacle to economic innovation.
Abstract: This article argues that the role of antisemitism in the populist backlash to financial power represents an empirical blind spot in IPE. I argue that the uncertainty and complexity of finance is su...

11 citations

References
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Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the role of business in national economies and show that there is more than one path to economic success, and explain national differences in social and economic policy.
Abstract: What are the most important differences among national economies? Is globalization forcing nations to converge on an Anglo-American model? What explains national differences in social and economic policy? This pathbreaking work outlines a new approach to these questions. It highlights the role of business in national economies and shows that there is more than one path to economic success.

5,778 citations

Book
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: A number of schemas have been proposed to explain why countries have often been able to secure substantial rates of growth in different ways, often with relatively egalitarian distributions of income as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Scholarship on varieties of capitalism (VofC) explores the ways in which the institutions structuring the political economy affect patterns of economic performance or policy making and the distribution of well-being. Contesting the claim that there is one best route to superior economic performance, a number of schemas have been proposed to explain why countries have often been able to secure substantial rates of growth in different ways, often with relatively egalitarian distributions of income. Prominent among them is a VofC analysis focused on the developed democracies that distinguishes liberal and coordinated market economies according to the ways in which firms coordinate their endeavors. On the basis of institutional complementarities among subspheres of the political economy, it suggests that the institutional structure of the political economy confers comparative institutional advantages, notably for radical and incremental innovation, which explains why economies have not converged in the context of globalization. Although this framework is contested, it has inspired new research on many subjects, including the basis for innovation, the determinants of social policy, the grounds for international negotiation, and the character of institutional change. In this issue area, there is promising terrain for further research into the origins of varieties of capitalism, the factors that drive institutional change in the political economy, how institutional arrangements in the subspheres of the political economy interact with one another, the normative underlay for capitalism, and the effects of varieties of capitalism on multiple dimensions of well-being. Keywords: capitalism; political economy; globalization; politics; institutional change; economic growth; macroeconomics; innovation; complementarities; social policy

3,045 citations


"Seeing and not-seeing like a politi..." refers background in this paper

  • ...This has, arguably, proved the greatest weakness of institutionalist political economy in the period before the global financial crisis – most obviously in the dual convergence thesis offered by the varieties of capitalism approach (Hall & Soskice 2001; and for a critique Hay 2020)....

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Book
01 Jan 1944

1,363 citations