Where is the study of WORK in critical IPE?

Moore, P

Abstract

The British school of International Political Economy (IPE) has been highly innovative in encouraging inter-disciplinary work, and allows eclecticism of research and investigation, which is quite distinct in contrast to its American counterpart. Critical theorists in the British school of IPE in particular have been highly prolific in recent years and adept in introducing research on a wide range of contemporary issues in the global political economy. However, this school tends to overlook very important areas of analysis: work and employment. In order to promulgate a potentially blossoming field of critical work into genuine integration across IPE and industrial relations, we must remember our ancestors.

Labour process theorists Braverman and Burowoy; heterodox economics and industrial relations research and the French Regulation School; varieties and models of capitalism; neo-Gramscian researchers; as well as a range of sociological and comparative politics methodologies have been incorporated, but more can be done. This article argues that researchers from seemingly autonomous fields can teach us a lesson within critical IPE: inter-disciplinarity is not a fantasy. The analysis, as one example, of exactly how governmental policy idealises a particular subjectivity wherein workers are not employed, but are employable, in the context of what Gramsci named a passive revolution, is a research project (Moore 2010) that begins to combine what have historically been disparate literatures. Not only can this kind of research enhance existing research in critical IPE, it must be continued, to address the needs of humanity in the increasingly unstable and flexibilised world of work.

Citation

Moore, P. (2012). Where is the study of WORK in critical IPE?. International Politics, 49(2), 215-237. https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2011.40

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 20, 2012
• Deposit Date: Sep 13, 2011
• Journal: International Politics
• Print ISSN: 1384-5748
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 215-237
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2011.40
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ip.2011.40
• Related Public URLs: http://link.springer.com/journal/41311