What constitutes Global Political Economy? In whose interest is GPE constructed, and by whom? How can inequalities in GPE best be redressed? These are some of the key questions addressed in the 7th edition of this title.
As an ever-evolving field, subject to constant changes and developments, Global Political Economy provides a comprehensive introduction to GPE written by leading experts in the field. Under the direction of new editor Prof. Erin Hannah, the 7th edition surveys major contemporary issues and debates in GPE while being attuned to silences, marginalizations, and exclusions that predominate the field. By integrating a wide range of theoretical approaches, rich empirical material, non-western viewpoints and diversity of contributors, the 7th edition provides enhanced coverage of the central axes of inequality in GPE and centers topics such as colonialism, race, gender, North-South divides and everyday life throughout chapters on GPE theory, global trade and production, global money and finance, the resurgence of the state, development and inequality, the environment, and digital technologies.
Chapter
6. Identity and Attitudes Towards Trade
Guisinger Alexandra
International trade shapes everyday lives and life chances the world over. Trade also can strengthen global cooperation or create conflict. Although trade policy is often considered within the purview of domestic and international elites, the public’s attitudes towards trade have both shaped and stymied elite behaviour. Understanding how individuals develop preferences about trade policy is challenging but can help explain when and how the public matters. Economic explanations based on individuals’ employment and consumption patterns underpin most scholarly work in this area but such models fall short in predicting individuals’ stated preferences and voting patterns. This work considers alternative explanations, rooted in race and gender, for individuals’ preferences for trade policy. It concludes by showing that political and media messaging serve to highlight and replicate gender- and race-based biases in trade.
Chapter
1. The Study of Global Political Economy
John Ravenhill and Erin Hannah
The multilateral economic order is facing several major challenges, including the persistent impact of COVID-19 on global output and growth, the shift towards decoupling and fragmentation in economic relations with China, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the disruption of global value chains, and the rise of conservative populism. Together these challenge the principles of liberal internationalism and provide a clear illustration of the relationship between trade, finance, international institutions, and the difficulties governments face in coping with the problems generated by complex interdependence. This chapter explores past and emerging challenges in the Global Political Economy (GPE) through a range of theoretical lenses. It also pays attention to the significance of race, colonialism, gender, and the intersections of GPE with everyday life.
Chapter
14. The Global Political Economy of Development
Ali Bhagat
Some major advances in the betterment of human life have been made in recent years but at the cost of accelerated climatic change and through uneven means of development. A reduction in child mortality, a rise in literacy and education, and by some measures the fewest people live in extreme poverty than they ever have before. Nevertheless, inequality on the multiple axes of health, income, environment, gender, education, technology, finance, shelter, food, water, and various other issues concerning access persist. This work examines efforts by various actors to deal with these problems with mixed and contested results. The analysis is centered around a key question: who benefits and why from globalised development? In so doing, it examines various development theories, traces the history of globalisation-led development post-WWII, and scrutinises contemporary challenges like the Great Recession and the Global Refugee Crisis, in order to understand the crisis prone tendencies of globalisation and its linkages to everyday practices in global political economy.
Chapter
15. The Global Political Economy of North–South Relations: A View from the South
J. P. Singh
Some major advances in the betterment of human life have been made in recent years but at the cost of accelerated climatic change and through uneven means of development. A reduction in child mortality, a rise in literacy and education, and by some measures the fewest people live in extreme poverty than they ever have before. Nevertheless, inequality on the multiple axes of health, income, environment, gender, education, technology, finance, shelter, food, water, and various other issues concerning access persist. This work examines efforts by various actors to deal with these problems with mixed and contested results. The analysis is centered around a key question: who benefits and why from globalised development? In so doing, it examines various development theories, traces the history of globalisation-led development post-WWII, and scrutinises contemporary challenges like the Great Recession and the Global Refugee Crisis, in order to understand the crisis prone tendencies of globalisation and its linkages to everyday practices in global political economy.
Chapter
4. Ideas, Social Hierarchies, and the Everyday
Erin Hannah and Lucy Hinton
Unequal relations of power along classed, racialized and gendered lines are central to the functioning of the global political economy (GPE). Beginning with this understanding this work centers some of the empirical and conceptual margins of GPE and highlights the interplay of ideas, social hierarchies and the everyday in order to shed light on some of the most important but often neglected aspects of GPE: gender, race, and everyday life. The work discusses the role of ideas in establishing and legitimizing different patterns of authority and power, social hierarchies, and the ways in which they are upheld by dominant ideals and power dynamics, and centers the experiences of the‘globally governed’ to better understand how everyday people experience the GPE and exercise agency, power, and resistance..
