Summary

The study of the International Political Economy (IPE), like the IPE itself, is plural and unbounded. Despite what partisans sometimes say, rather than there being 'one way' of studying the IPE that is the 'right way', we find across the world great variation in IPE scholarship in terms of focus, questions, and methods. How then can we make sense of this and understand the field as a whole rather than simply learn one part of it?

This Handbook is designed to address precisely this concern. It maps the shifting boundaries and diverse theoretical commitments of IPE around the world. It engages the geographical and theoretical diversity of the different versions of IPE found in North America, the UK, in Asia and Australia; and notes the absences of distinctive versions of IPE in Europe and Latin America. The volume groups together the essential attributes and positions of each school, inviting the reader to engage with and learn about IPE in all of its guises through this evolving 'global conversation.' Rather than adjudicate 'the one true version' of IPE, it argues that the intellectual diversity we see around the world is an essential, and positive, feature of the field.

With over twenty contributors from a wide range of countries Routledge Handbook of International Political Economy is an essential resource for all those with an interest in this complex and rapidly evolving field of study.