Abstract
The British school of International Political Economy (IPE) has been highly innovative in encouraging inter-disciplinary work, revealing – while allowing for – an eclecticism of research and investigation that stands in clear contrast to its American counterpart. Critical theorists in the British school of IPE in particular have been highly prolific in recent years and have introduced research on a wide range of contemporary issues in the global political economy. However, this school tends to overlook two very important areas of analysis: work and employment. More thus needs to be done. This article argues that researchers from seemingly autonomous fields can teach critical IPE a lesson: inter-disciplinarity is not a fantasy. The analysis suggested here is of how governmental policy idealises a particular subjectivity wherein workers are not employed, but are employable. Not only would a focus on this problem enhance existing research in critical IPE: it is also essential if we are to address the needs of humanity in the increasingly unstable and flexibilised world of work. The British school of critical IPE is the forum within which this conversation could and should be continued.
Highlights
The British school of International Political Economy (IPE) has been highly innovative in encouraging inter-disciplinary work, revealing – while allowing for – an eclecticism of research and investigation that stands in clear contrast to its American counterpart
Within International Political Economy (IPE), researchers have been devoted to discussions of the internationalisation of finance, foreign direct investment (FDI), and currency fluctuations; and methodologies are often focussed on econometrics, supply and demand-chain statistics, and related quantitative methods
In response to the onslaught of mainstream theory, areas of research conducted, and orthodox methodologies in IPE, this article intends to contribute to the emerging area of critical IPE through revealing what is at stake for people in the neo-capitalist, neoliberal markets and the economic recession that plagues our current world
Summary
The British school of International Political Economy (IPE) has been highly innovative in encouraging inter-disciplinary work, revealing – while allowing for – an eclecticism of research and investigation that stands in clear contrast to its American counterpart. Harrod suggests the introduction of an International Political Economy of Labour (2002), but this discipline should not exclude work, and should include research into the discourse of employability as a technique for the micromanagement of the productive self, in the form of the transnationalised concept of a, paradoxically, forced subjectivity.
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