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

• Sherilyn Macgregor is the project lead for the Centre for Joined Up Sustainability Transformations (JUST), a major £8m research initiative funded by ESRC and UKRI focused on the pursuit of sustainability transformations that are people-centred, 'joined-up' and socially just. Bringing together the universities of Manchester, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, and Newcastle, and with partners in the policy, innovation, business, local government, community and voluntary sector, it seeks to accelerate understanding of a just transition through coordinating research into action at all levels of society. The Manchester team also includes Mat Paterson.
• Alex Nunn has been working with a range of organisations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, OECD and World Association of Public Employment Services to produce high profile work on labour market policy effectiveness.  An example is a recent report summarising evidence on the effectiveness and design of Active Labour Market Policy.
• Ellie Gore's book, Between HIV prevention and LGBTI rights: The political economy of queer activism in Ghana was published in October 2024 and is available open access.
• Ian Bruff's work on authoritarian neoliberalism was discussed at a workshop in June 2024 in Kings College London.
• Greig Charnock's book, David Harvey: A critical introduction to his thought, was published in 2023.
• The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and ESRC-funded project Gendering global trade through Canada-UK trade relationships led by Adrienne Roberts and Silke Trommer; Roberts and Trommer also lead the SheTrades: Gendering global trade governance project, funded by the SSHRC.
• Mat Paterson was the recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Scholar Award from the environmental studies section of the International Studies Association. His book, In search of climate politics, was published in 2021.
• The project Foundations and frontiers in IPE co-led by Stuart Shields and supported by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust.

People