A Critical Rewriting of Global Political Economy: Integrating Reproductive, Productive and Virtual Economies

Moving beyond a narrow definition of economics, this pioneering book advances our knowledge of global political economy and how we might critically respond to it. Two features of the global economy increasingly determine everyday lives worldwide. The first is explosive growth in financial markets that shapes business decision-making and public policy-making, and the second is dramatic growth in informal and flexible work arrangements that shapes income-generation and family well-being. These developments, though widely recognized, are rarely analyzed as inextricable and interacting dimensions of globalization. Using a new theoretical model Peterson demonstrates the interdependence of reproductive, productive, and virtual economies, and analyzes inequalities of race, gender, class, and nation as structural features of neoliberal globalization. Presenting a methodologically plural, cross-disciplinary and well-documented account of globalization, the author integrates marginalized and disparatefeatures of globalization to provide an accessible narrative from a postcolonial feminist vantage point.

V. Spike Peterson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Arizona.