Cultural political economy

The article describes the role of legislative and legal framework which brought about a new approach to waste management through the concept of circular economy, and its drivers. We explicitly focus on the impact of ambitious EU environmental policy and its financial support from the European Commission (EC) which helped social actors recognize not only the ecological, but also the economic and social benefits of the circular economy. Over 50 actions under the “Circular Economy Action Plan” launched in 2015 have been delivered or are being implemented in this period in European Union (EU). Through overview of the EU’s ambitious policy, best practice of the circular economy in the world and status quo in circular economy at EU level we also show the circular economy is nowadays a crucial megatrend and there is still needed to increase up action at EU level, provide the competitive advantage it brings to EU economy and close the loop. Beside impact of ambitious EU environmental policy article focuses on the Cultural Political Economy (CPE) approach as a political economy approach with the purpose for explaining the role of legislative and legal framework as a mechanism for selection and retention of the paradigm of circular economy.

This fascinating volume offers a critique of recent institutional and cultural turns in heterodox economics and political economy. Using seven case studies as examples, the authors explore how research on sense- and meaning-making can deepen critical studies in political economy, illuminating its role in critiquing the specific categories, contradictions and crisis-tendencies of capitalism.

The aim of this article is to show that economic experts are not the product of one single social field, with one identity and one role. They are rather the product of a trans-epistemic discursive field. By a combination of discourse analytical tools from post-structuralism and a theory of symbolic power derived from Bourdieu's work, the contribution explores how economists occupy a powerful, hegemonic position in the global political economy. While classical approaches in Political Economy reduce power mainly to money and violence, this paper takes the recent debates on the cultural turn in Political Economy as a starting point to develop the idea of a Discursive Political Economy of Economics. In the first step it is shown how discourse and power interact. In the second step the paper explores the discursive power logic of economic expert discourses at the interface between academia, politics, media and the economy with illustrations from empirical research. The claim of this paper is that the power of economic expert discourses in the media, politics and the political economy is based on an elitism dispositif which emerged in the academic world of economics in the USA as an ‘excellence myth’.

This article evaluates Polanyi’s work from two complementary theoretical perspectives: moral economy and cultural political economy. Polanyi’s comparative historical analyses of substantive economies, their modes of distribution and the bases for their respective kinds of relative unity and stability, the rise of the market economy in and through its disembedding from more encompassing social relations, the social bases and motives for resistance to this disembedding, and its subsequent re-embedding in a market society are major theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of moral economies. Polanyi’s work can also be explored for insights that anticipate the emerging post-disciplinary approach of cultural political economy, which combines critical semiotic analysis and the critique of political economy. More importantly, cultural political economy provides new theoretical and methodological tools for elaborating Polanyi’s brilliant insights into moral economy.

Rural geography has developed and expanded with vigour in the last 30 years, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. Theoretical approaches to two great traditions in the social sciences -the political-economic approach and the cultural approach (see Woods, 2005, 2009) — were of particular importance in shaping new research tracks and programmes. The root of the theoretical transformation in this field can be found in the multiple broad interpretations of the terms ‘rural’ and ‘rurality in the changing economic and political circumstances of the world (e.g. the ideology of globalisation, metropolisation, consumerism, environmentalism), as well as in deeper reflection on and attention to the links between rural geography and other social sciences (mainly sociology, cultural anthropology, and political economy). Though geographical studies of rural areas do not play a leading role in social science research in any country, they do have a tradition that stretches far back and have registered undeniable successes in both scientific theory and practice (see Bunce, 2005; Cloke et al., 2006; Woods, 2009).KeywordsRural AreaSocial CapitalHuman GeographyCivic EngagementRural EnvironmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

A cultural political economy (CPE) approach is adopted to examine the rise of discourses about the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies and about their implications for power shifts in the world system. Forces such as international investment banks, economic strategists, international organizations, national governments, business media, etc. contributed in constructing and circulating ‘BRIC’ as a new economic imaginary and investment form. These involved constructions of ‘hope’ and ‘strength’ over three overlapping stages: an investor story, an investor-consumer story, and now an investorconsumer- lender story. This amalgam of discourses and practices (which are subject to continuing renegotiation in response to changing circumstances and further shifts in the balance of forces) has facilitated the gradual sedimentation and naturalization of BRIC as a potential ‘group’ and has mediated particular power shifts in the global political economy. Specifically, this (trans-)national privileging and popularization of ‘BRIC’ is contributing to the (re-)making of investment patterns and neoliberal social relations.

Various analyses show that right-wing populist parties (RWP) tend to be sceptical of climate science and policy. This points to a blank space in the dominant analyses of populism: their blindness towards society-nature relations. This paper aims to develop an approach grounded in Cultural Political Economy (CPE) that can be used to decipher the mediation of RWP within the context of economic, political, and cultural developments as well as society–nature relations. Against this background, the argument is developed that RWP is concerned not only with countering migration and processes of societal liberalisation, but also with defending an existing way of life that is firmly rooted in the destructive appropriation of nature. As a current of right-wing politics, RWP defends the imperial mode of living by expressing scepticism towards the existence of anthropogenic climate change. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the political economy of RWP by linking the dimensions of social domination with the appropriation of nature.

ABSTRACTAgainst the background of enduring crisis dynamics, an increasingly popular (neo-)Gramscian line of interpretation has the merit of shedding light on the ambivalences of the present political scenario as a series of ongoing struggles for hegemony. Yet how to concretely conceive, structure and operationalize empirical investigations interested in these struggles without neglecting their complex interplay of discursive and extra-discursive dynamics? I suggest that cultural political economy (CPE), historical materialist policy analysis (HMPA) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) of practical argumentation can be productively combined into a transdisciplinary research framework to investigate key strategic aspects at play in conflicts over the making and challenging of hegemony. Building on the potential for synergy between CPE and HMPA, I argue that a CDA of practical argumentation can improve their analytical strength in investigating strategies within the broader context of hegemony struggles. Both CPE and HMPA, in fact, imply a process of practical reasoning as a key element in their respective approaches to questions of strategy. This implicit concern, I suggest, should be made explicit and a CDA focusing on practical argumentation can be an ideal candidate to strengthen CPE and HMPA in this respect.

The territorial dimensions of the state are undergoing substantial changes. Political entities, such as cities and regions, are gaining in importance. Described as entrepreneurial city politics, policy-makers of contemporary cities are using new, economically oriented strategies to strengthen their city's position in interurban competition. Despite this state of affairs, social science still tends to treat local politics as equal to sub-national politics. This has especially been the case in Scandinavia, where local governments have traditionally functioned as an extension of the central welfare state. Since processes associated with entrepreneurial city politics are manifested in Scandinavia as well, this article argues that there is a need to rethink what local politics ultimately is about. The article proposes the ideas recently formed at the ‘Lancaster School of Cultural Political Economy’ as an approach with which to reconceptualise local politics. In the final section, some remarks on a future research agenda, centred on the cultural political economy of contemporary city politics, are presented.

Chapter abstract School accountability reforms are being disseminated worldwide, although their adoption is not a homogeneous process – they are “selectively adopted” in diverse education systems and are locally vernacularized. Much attention has been paid to the role of international organizations in these processes, but less is known about the role of subnational spaces of government and their relationships with the national and international levels. This chapter explores the selective adoption and uses of accountability policy solutions in two regions of two different decentralized countries (Minas Gerais, Brazil and Madrid, Spain) to provide a multiscalar comparison of two accountability policy reforms. Methodologically, we conducted a multiple-case study with a comparative perspective based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with key informants (n=53). Based on the Cultural Political Economy (CPE) approach, the results of our research suggest that the decentralized nature of federal and quasi-federal states facilitated the adoption of standardized tests, whereas the administrative traditions acted as a hindering factor for the retention of accountability approaches. We argue that the administrative traditions and the institutional architecture of the state are key mediating factors to better understand how global reforms are adapted in different settings. The chapter identifies five dynamics of policy trajectories of accountability reforms in decentralized education systems: regional competition, ideological confrontation, subnational vernacularization, horizontal emulation and multiscalar policy interdependence.

Depoliticization is a pivotal political strategy that defines the contemporary governance of core capitalist democracies. This thesis asks how depoliticization manifests itself as a political strategy in the spatial restructuring of the Finnish state space. The spatial politics of depoliticization are examined by the three thesis articles, which focus on visionary planning in urban politics, the legitimation of the forest bioeconomy in the public sphere, and Finnish forest capital’s attempt to influence the state’s strategic direction. These perspectives provide a holistic view of the various depoliticizing and politicizing tendencies, as well as the political and economic contradictions affecting spatial change in Finland. The thesis examines the societal base of depoliticization by focusing on how capitalist social relations and the capitalist mode of production condition the constitution and differentiation of societal spheres. The differentiation of the economic and the political sphere and the resulting ecological dominance of “the economy” under capitalism provides a unique setting for depoliticization to appear in the form of economization. Acts of demarcation between the political and the economic spheres are based on ontological abstraction, which then faces humanity as a real and concrete product of social activity. The thesis applies strategic-relational state theory and the theories of uneven development to examine depoliticization. Depoliticization emerges in the context of competing growth models that have a diverging conception of the spatial division of labor in Finland. Amidst urbanization, the urban growth-focused city-regionalist model posits a “winner takes all” spatial structure in which a few select urban areas compete against their global counterparts to attract capital and investment. In contrast, the bioeconomy model seeks to halt the rural decline by transforming the resource-dependent regional economies into ostensibly more sustainable production models, thereby reinvigorating a dispersed spatial structure. Article I analyzes the depoliticization of visionary planning in the case of the Oulu City Center Vision 2040 project by observing and engaging with policy documentation, research reports, planning events, and the vision itself. Article II examines the depoliticization of the bioeconomy in the context of the 2019 parliamentary elections in Finland through a collection of newspaper articles and items between July 2018 and January 2020. Article III investigates the forest conglomerate UPM’s attempt to politicize the Kaipola paper mill shutdown in August 2020 by using statistical data, the public strategies of UPM, and the online and news media around the Kaipola debate. The cultural political economy (CPE) approach developed prominently by Jessop and Sum forms the overarching methodological framework of the thesis and focuses on the dialectics of materiality and discursivity in political-economic imaginaries. The thesis applies CPE-inspired critical discourse analysis to examine the spatial politics of depoliticization. The overall contribution of the thesis reveals how the material interdependence of the political sphere with other societal spheres and the social totality of capitalist society produces a specific place for politics that conditions its operational autonomy. The spatial politics of depoliticization are unfolded through the divergent political-economic imaginaries of state spatial development to which different capital fractions, political parties, and regional and class interests are attached. Conceptual stretching and expansive uses of depoliticization are recognized as key and very vexatious problems in the literature. To retain the analytical clarity of depoliticization, the thesis argues that depoliticization should be better grounded in the material developments of each context, evading pan-politicism with more exclusive notions of politics, and even radically decentering politics and the political in the analyses of depoliticization. The normative critique of depoliticization should move from the level of critiquing politics to a critique of the social totality which produces a specific place for politics.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has ravaged the world. The pace at which this pandemic spread left policy makers scrambling to understand the virus and craft ameliorative policy measures, while populations struggled to make sense of the pandemic’s impact on their lives. This opened up many opportunities for crisis learning. This article deploys the Cultural Political Economy (CPE) approach to analyse discursive and material ways in which the President of the United States engaged in crisis learning and crisis management during the early months of the pandemic. Although preexisting conditions structured the early response to COVID-19, contingent moments of (in)action by the President had significant, path-shaping impact on the scope and severity of the pandemic. A vignette on the functionality of the US healthcare system during the early days of the pandemic offers further clarity on the interplay between material and discursive factors impacting real-time crisis learning and management.

The political economy of tourism development: A critical review

The news coverage of the financial crisis has presented us with two kinds of stories. The first typically features conservatively tailored financial experts who explain the mysteries of credit default swaps and structured investment vehicles. The second starts with a long panning shot of row upon row of unsold houses, and then focuses in for a close-up of a desperate homeowner who has had to give his dream home back to the bank. The first of these news stories presents the crisis as the product of a series of highly complex financial practices. The second reminds us of the ways in which everyday activities and aspirations like buying a home were also at the center of the crisis. It is of course possible to try to resolve one of these stories into the other: to suggest that the homeowners are merely the victims of financialization gone wild, or to argue that consumer profligacy upset the financial balance. While both of these accounts contain some insight, they both move too quickly to resolve the productive tension between these two different worlds of professional finance and homeownership. I will suggest that it is worth taking the time to examine these two different worlds and to ask ourselves how they managed to sustain themselves for so long. To do so, it is useful to see them both as manifestations of a particular kind of cultural political economy—drawing on an approach that I have developed together with Matthew Paterson. 4 A cultural political economy approach not only brings into international relations a rich literature on cultural economy developed by sociologists, anthropologists, and geographers (Thrift 1997; Du Gay and Pryke 2002; MacKenzie 2006). It also seeks to bring three different kinds of scholarship into conversation with one another: adding a cultural dimension to …

This study is an attempt to understand how Islamists, especially a significant part of the Shi’a clergy, become the dominant political force in Iran in the 1970s, which was a decade of state transformation. Employing a conceptual toolbox and methods of investigation based on the Strategic-Relational Approach and Cultural Political Economy, this study introduces fresh perspectives, concerns, and concepts to reconstruct the key features of the complex revolutionary moment in 1979 and provide a periodisation of state (trans-)formations in Iran. It identifies two main periods: national state building (1848-1970) and expansion (1970-). By exploring the recontexualization and changing articulation of three discursive formations and taking note of different temporalities, this study identifies a ‘holy triad’ (justice, progress and independence) that sheds light on the development of the national state in Iran. I argue that justice is the master frame for conceptualising the changing significance of the other two. The thesis also argues that the political economy of oil became the triad’s primary point of crystallisation in the 1970s. Thus, an economic crisis that followed the collapse of the oil boom in the mid-1970s profoundly disoriented the state’s political and cultural legitimacy. This crisis created the setting for the rise and dominance of an innovative, Shi’ite messianic narrative. This was embodied in Khomeini’s role in Iranian politics. Therefore, this study explores the history of Shi’ism and the Shi’a messianic movements to identify the resources and capacities available to Khomeini to promote his counter-hegemonic visions. A further factor favouring Khomeini’s messianic movement was the history of (semi-)colonialism in the region and the intensifying Arab-Israeli conflict, which tended to confirm Khomeini’s narrative rather than the ideas of his rivals. In short, rather than re-interpreting the 1979 Revolution in the light of new historical findings, this study provides a spatio-temporally sensitive strategic-relational account of revolutionary conjuncture and historical specificity of the background to the revolution and its path-shaping impact on the present moment.