Critical Perspectives on International Political Economy considers and revises the progress of critical thinking within IPE and engages with issues such as finance, the practices of health and work, the relevance of new social movements and the political economy of the Internet. In so doing it provides a possible map for the next stage of critical development in the study of International Political Economy.

Thirteen contributions from political scientists, sociologists, and other academics represent a critical approach to the IPE of the environment: "an approach that focuses on the historical development and framing of environmental problems and solutions and that seeks to understand the social priorities or purpose that differing problems and solutions reflect" (from the preface). A unifying theme is the idea that the way in which problems are framed intimately impacts the kinds of solutions that are proposed. A sampling of topics: environmental NGOs, TNCs, and the question of governance; environmental discourse and danger in Dominican and Cuban urban watersheds; and global change and the political economy of sustainable development in Brazil. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Political economy, in its various guises and transfigurations, is a research philosophy that presents both social commentary and theoretical progress and is concerned with a number of different topics: politics, regulation and governance, production systems, social relations, inequality and development amongst many others. As a critical theory, political economy seeks to provide an understanding of societies – and of the structures and social relations that form them – in order to evoke social change toward more equitable conditions. Despite the early influence of critical development studies and political economy on tourism research, political economy has received relatively little attention in tourism research. Political Economy and Tourism the first volume to bring together different theoretical perspectives and discourse in political economy related to tourism. Written by leading scholars, the text is organised into three sequential Parts, linked by the principle that ‘the political’ and ‘the economic’ are intimately connected. Part one presents different approaches to political economy, including Marxist political economy, regulation, comparative political economy, commodity chain research and alternative political economies; Part two links key themes of political economy, such as class, gender, labour, development and consumption, to tourism; and Part three examines the political economy at various geographical scales and focuses on the outcomes and processes of the political act of planning and managing tourism production. This engaging volume provides insights and alternative critical perspectives on political economy theory to expand discussions of tourism development and policy in the future. Political Economy and Tourism is a valuable text for students, researchers and academics interested in Tourism and related disciplines.

Amidst the continued debate surrounding the foundations of IPE, coupled with recent methodological and theoretical divides this book argues that an attempt should be made to re-visit the notion of the 'critical'. The challenge posed by contributors to this volume is to assess the development of so-called critical IPE and interrogate whether the theoretical foundations it was built upon have reached their potential. The essays in this volume take up this challenge in a number of different ways but all share a common concern - to re-assess the purpose of critical approaches, reflect on why certain social theorists have been favoured as a point of departure, yet others have largely been ignored. In light of recent debates on the notion of a 'trans-Atlantic divide' within IPE the collection the contributors aim demonstrates how the distinction between the 'critical' and the 'orthodox' (or 'empirical') is only significant if the 'critical' is geared towards a larger, more substantial body of critical social enquiry and engages with what it means to conduct such enquiry.

Over the last few decades, the field of management enlarged its boundaries, especially in international terms, in a very rapid fashion—mainly because of the arrival of the so-called era of globalization. Many renowned scholars have criticized the universal approach given to ‘management’ in the United States and its subsequent automatic conversion into ‘international management,’ but their arguments too can fall into the trap of universalism at times. This book has a more specific concern: to challenge the conversion of ‘management’ into ‘international management’ from a Latin American perspective. This challenge might be taken as a first step toward the construction of a Latin American perspective in International Management and a potential contribution to the development of this field in other parts of the world. Drawing upon such critical standpoint, several authors in the book converge upon the idea that researchers, practitioners and authorities in Latin America should challenge the US dominance in International Management and foster interdisciplinary developments within International Relations. The critical perspective provided in this book challenges the US’s narrow viewpoint on management as it clearly does not fit the governance features of ‘international management’ in Latin America. So far, we have not observed the constitution of sub-areas such as international management of international organizations, international management of transnational institutions, international management of public-private networks, international management of public companies, and international public administration or international public management, all of which would be extremely important in Latin America.

The book provides critical perspectives that reach beyond the technical approaches of international financial institutions and proponents of the liberal peace formula. It investigates political economies characterized by the legacies of disruption to production and exchange, by population displacement, poverty, and by 'criminality'.

The first in-depth analysis of how global governance impacts on the lives of ordinary people. This new volume includes four detailed case studies on labour, migration, children and development that explore the actual nature of governance policies in the GPE. Jean Grugel and Nicola Piper clearly show how global governance, the creation of global norms and regimes to regulate polities, economic and social actors, suggests and promotes ideals such as stable politics, democracy, human rights and individualism, with a strategy to create a more ordered and ultimately better world. They move away from the traditional focus on élites, states and global institutions to explore and analyze how liberal global governance is really affecting ordinary people and how this is often an obstacle to development, citizenship, voice and inclusion. Paying particular attention to the global South, Asia and Latin America, these expert authors trace the development of liberal global governance. They also clearly examine and study how this regulation has spread from areas such as trade and investment, to development, labour, migration, children and the environment.