Handbook of Alternative Theories of Political Economy

This Handbook provides an overview of established and cutting-edge contributions to political economic thought. Chapters by leading and emerging scholars showcase the diverse approaches and productive debates among researchers. Separate sections of the book deal with political economy as an area of knowledge, its principal theoretical traditions, the dynamics and socio-ecological foundations of economic systems, and political economy’s interdisciplinary connections. Thirty-two chapters cover the full spectrum of contemporary political economy, including classical, Marxist, post-Keynesian, institutional, evolutionary, and feminist approaches, recent studies of capital as power, modern money theory, behavioural economics, social structures of accumulation, and race, gender and class. The volume concludes by reflecting on how these theories of political economy can contribute to making a better world. Pluralist and interdisciplinary in its approach, this Handbook is a key resource for students and teachers of political economy and heterodox economics, as well as for other social scientists wanting to understand political economic processes.