ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to develop a critical analysis of ideas, ideology and knowledge in the global political economy. Consequently, taking Susan Strange seriously, as Cutler is absolutely right to do, as a 'critical thinker' means, as Strange probably intended, stepping outside the parameters of the conventional and dominant practices of International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE). The parameters of conventional social science, as manifest in IR/IPE, are derived from a particular conception of how we know what we know–a particular conception of the process of producing legitimate social knowledge based on a specific view of 'science'. The specific view of science that is now embedded in mainstream IR/IPE as that producing legitimate knowledge is based on the notion of a 'scientific research program'. This is derived from the work of the philosopher of science, Imre Lakatos, in an exchange of views with Karl Popper over the status of Thomas Kuhn's 'normal science'.
