Global Political Economy: Contemporary theories Edited by RONEN PALAN In Azeri...>>> We are grateful to the The Open Society Institute - Assistance Foundation (Soros Foundation) without whouse assistance this Book could not exist. Contents List of illustrations Notes on contributors Series editors’ preface Acknowledgemets List of abbreviations 1. New trends in global political economy, RONEN PALAN PART l - Key categories in the global political economy 2. Structuring the political arena: public goods, states and governance in a globalizing world, PHILIP G. GERNY 3. Approaching the organisation of economic activity in the age of cross-border alliance capitalism, RICHARD PHILLIPS 4. The use and misuse of power analysis in international theory, STEFANO GUZZINI 5. Capital accumulation: breaking the dualism of ‘economics' and 'politics', JONATHAN NITZAN AND SHIMSHON BICHLER 6. Labour and IPE: rediscovering human agency, ROBERT O'BRIEN 7. Globalisation: trend or project?, PHILIP MCMICHAEL PART ll - Theoretical innovation and contemporary debates 8. Game theory: international trade, conflict and cooperation, LISA J. CARLSON 9. New institationalism and international relations, HENDRIK SPRUYT 10. Globalization and theories of regulation, MICHAEL DUNFORD 11. Transnational historical materialism: theories of trausnational class formation and world order, HENK OVERBEEK 12. A nebbish presence: undervalued contributions of sociological institutionalism to IPE, ANNA LEANDER 13. Trends in development theory, JAN NEDERVEEN PIETERSE 14. The constructivist underpinnings of the new international political economy, RONEN PALAN 15. Historical sociology and global transformation, MARTIN SHAW 16. Global passions withing global interests: race, gender, and culture in our postcolonial order, L. H. M. LING Bibliography Index

Preface

The book Global Political Economy: Contemporary Theories provides an excellent illustration of such attempts theoretically to capture and understand the changing Global Political Economy and its ontological and epistemological implications. Bringing together well-known specialists in the field, the volume manages to accomplish three things. First, it provides an excellent overview and discussion of the new ideas and theories imported from other, related fields in the social sciences. As the editor argues, the (re-)introduction of evolutionary economics, Marxian political economy and institutionalism into the heterodox field of NPE serves to break the conceptual boundaries between politics and economics or states and firms and allows us to develop a truly integrated political-economy approach. Second, the contributions in the volume revisit the established categories of IPE and analyse how these need to be re-conceptualised in order to capture current processes of transformation. For instance, it is once again demonstrated how the traditional dyad state/power vs. market/capital no longer holds true. Capital and power are present in both arenas and are so intertwined that we need to think in terms of political-economy. Also, it is increasingly necessary to include 'society' and societal forces such as social movements and non-governmental organisations in our analysis of the Global Political Economy. Finally, the volume pinpoints at a new and important development in the field of IPE, which is the emergence of post-rationalist approaches. This post-rationalist turn - sometimes also referred to as linguistic turn - in IPE is best illustrated by the contributions from Palan and Ling. The emphasis on negotiation, contestation and historical narrative underlines the open-endedness of contemporary processes in the Global Political Economy. It also allows for the introduction of such important dimensions as race, ethnicity and gender which have remained irwisible for too long, both in our theorising and our choice of 'key categories' in IPE. Showing how material transformations are intertwined with and embedded in re-articulations of identity and cultural practices is a first step toward expanding the horizons of NPE. 

In sum, the editors strongly recommend Global Political Economy: Contemporary Theories because it provides a state of the art overview of the debates, issues and new directions in the field of IPE. It is a 'must read' for everyone who wants to stay abreast of the latest developments in a very rich field of study.

Global Political Economy (GPE) is a broad and varied field of study, drawing from a number of disciplines and approaches. Most International Political Economy (IPE) texts give the impression that the discipline is divided into three paradigms: realism, liberalism and structuralism; this book argues that modern IPE has moved on. Given the bewildering range of debates, students and lecturers need a good clear text which is critical and informative; this book presents an invaluable overview of all the major contemporary debates and approaches now at the forefront of European and American Global Political Economy.

Global Political Economy is structured around two basic themes: the first part focuses on the six central concepts of GPE: state, firm, capital, power, labour and globalisation; these concepts have A been subject to recent innovation and debate. The second part of the book considers a select number of theories at the forefront of GPE, from the broad traditions of Marxism, rationalism and hermencutics/institutionalism. This book provides succinct sununaries of these topical, wide-ranging issues and controversies. Given how difficult it is to keep up to date with IPE and GPE, this book represents a compact guide to the wide range of debates in the field and will be ideal for students and lecturers alike in IPE and International Relations.

Ronen Palan is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex. He is joint editor of the Review of International Political Economy, co-author of State Strategies in the Global Political Economy, and co-editor of Transcending the State Global Divide.