Global
Political economy is
conventionally understood
as the study of how
politics and economics
mutually shape each other and the global
system.
Influenced by
18th
and
19th
century humanistic
thought of
liberalism (Adam Smith)
, economic nationalism
(Friedrich List) and
socialism
(Karl Marx)
among many others,
the discipline has focused on understanding the role of states, firms
and workers
in the international extraction, production, transportation, consumption
and disposal
of goods and
services
(the extraction
-disposal chain)
. The
assumption
has been that
there are
no
important
impacts
on
the natural world
. From a
post
-humanistic perspective
, however, and
in the
era of the
Anthropocene
, analysts
must
now
also address the
reciprocal impact of humans on nature and nature
on humans
.
This unit
introduces students to conventional and emerging issues in
Global Political Economy (GPE)
from a Political Economy of Sustainability perspective
. The unit examines conventional
GPE narratives
that frame
perceptions of the GPE as having to do with markets (economic liberalism), states
(economic nationalism) and
workers (economic socialism). To these narratives, the unit also examines
one that frames it as having to do with nature (political ecology) and discusses how these four
narratives can be
subsumed within
the pluralistic,
political economy of sustainability narrative.
Following a discussion of GPE narratives, the unit examines several
conventional
GPE
issues
: global
trade
policy, global
investment
policy
, and global monetary policy.
In the era of the Anthropocene,
a
range of
new issues must be
also be
analysed including the
sustainability of extraction
-disposal
chains
, and the unit also examines
corporate malfeasance (e.g. multinational tax avoidance) and the
digital
revolution (e.g. robotics and jobs).