ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapter I argued that prevailing accounts are analytically inadequate and politically problematic. A critical rewriting of global political economy therefore requires a critical rethinking of conventional theory. The purpose of this chapter is to clarify and substantiate these claims, primarily by reviewing the existing theoretical literature and assessing its strengths and limitations. I first consider the disciplinary, epistemological, and ideological commitments of prevailing approaches to globalization. The next section reviews contemporary scholarship on the global political economy, feminist economics, postcolonial studies, and feminist social theory. By reference to these literatures, I identify both what is valuable and will be built upon and what is weak and must be improved upon to produce a critical rewriting of GPE. I then elaborate the analytical innovations of a relational “RPV framing” and “triad analytics.” To further clarify the orientation adopted in this book, I conclude by reviewing an interpretive (semiotic/poststructuralist) model of language.
