ABSTRACT
The key ontological starting point of Inter-American perspectives on political economy and governance is to highlight the multidirectional flows and entanglements of politics and economic production and exchange, across and within the diverse regions of the Americas and the Caribbean. Examining the inter-American entanglements from within the field of political economy permits a more fluid conceptualization of the ongoing changes within structure-agency in concrete socio-spatial contexts. Broadly speaking, political economy is interested in the interaction between politics and their material bases–or how economic issues shape political interests, processes, and outcomes and vice-versa. Political economy seeks to understand social change and historical transformation, what possibilities exist to overcome the inequalities and injustices of the mode of production, and the prevalent relations of consumption and exchange. Economic and social structures in different societies and communities across the Americas and the Caribbean are very much connected and, in many ways, entangled.
