Global Political Economy

Manchester has been central to global political economy debates since the mid-19th century, when both liberal free traders and Marx and Engels found a home here. They articulated some of the key ideas which our members still grapple with today.

About

The Global Political Economy cluster focuses research on a series of key questions regarding the dynamics of global capitalism. How does it depend on and reproduce key forms of inequality around race, gender, sexuality, class and geography? What drives its crisis-prone qualities? What are the main ideological forms that sustain it and seem to make resistance to its power so difficult? How is it integral to the production of ecological unsustainability and can it survive the challenge of the climate crisis? What are the main current debates in the critique of global capitalism?

Colleagues and PhD students within the cluster work on a range of these questions in various specific contexts, including:

  • Gender, sexuality, race and class in the global political economy
  • Trade, finance, and global production
  • The politics of global economic governance
  • Political economy of the environmental crisis and the pursuit of sustainability
  • Ideology and the legitimation of capitalism, especially neoliberalism
  • Resistance and social movements in the global economy
  • Political economy of various world regions, especially Europe, Africa, and Latin America

Highlights

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