ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the discourses of competitiveness and it draws on Gramsci's analyses of Americanism and Fordism and Foucault's work on liberalism and neoliberalism respectively. Gramsci developed Ricardo's concept of 'determinate market' to highlight the historical specificity of different economic forms, institutions, and dynamics in different epochs and in specific economic regimes. The concept of 'knowledge brand' is just one illustration of how Cultural political economy (CPE) scholars approach knowledge and power especially the challenge of moving between actual events and processes and real, underlying mechanisms in order to develop a critical understanding of production of hegemonies. Accordingly, CPE sees the 'economy' from a discursive as well as material perspective or, better, examines it in discursive and extra-discursive properties as the emergent product of various economic imaginaries and/or their translation into hegemonic strategies and projects. The chapter concludes with some general remarks on the potential contribution of Gramsci and Foucault to the development of emerging agenda of cultural political economy.
