Beyond economism in international political economy

Abstract

This article argues that the study of international political economy (IPE) in general, and the analysis of modern finance in particular, have much to gain from the insights articulated in poststructuralist international relations. In contrast to recent critiques of poststructuralism, this article argues that the study of international finance necessitates a consideration of the discursive practices which bring capitalist concepts such as money, profit and capital into being. Financial practices do not exist prior to, or independently from, ideas and beliefs about them. Thus, IPE should recognise the production of economic and financial knowledge as an important site where power is exercised. In recent years poststructuralist work has become increasingly significant within the study of International Relations (IR).1 Poststructuralist scholars have critically questioned the discipline's core concepts including the state, rational man and the separation between the domestic and the international spheres. Although this approach has been greatly contested, poststructuralists have attempted to open the discipline of IR to broader concerns than its traditional focus on state/state and state/market interaction, by paying attention to, amongst other things, the cultural representation of political practices and the politics of everyday life. However, there is one area in IR in which remarkably little poststructuralist intervention has taken place. Despite its important critical tradition, the study of International Political Economy (IPE) has yet to address some of the questions raised in poststructuralism. Questioning of the core concepts of IR and critical reflection on the state/market dichotomy have been two of the main preoccupations of a developing body of literature which may be called 'critical IPE'.2 This literature