ABSTRACT
Yet it would be a mistake to presume that political economy will rise phoenixlike from the analytical ashes of mainstream economics and postmodernism. For, I have argued elsewhere that economics is currently undergoing a significant shift in its orientation. 1 On the basis of the new micro-foundations or information-theoretic approach, it is seeking to colonise the other social sciences as never before. Accordingly, there is considerable tension between the two processes that I have identified. Mainstream economics is particularly unsuited to contribute to systemic analysis of the sort required to handle concepts such as globalisation. Yet it is exerting influence, to a greater or lesser extent and in varied ways, over the other social sciences that are more at home in examining contemporary capitalism as a system.
