New Political Economy

MANAGING EDITOR

EDITORS

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Alexis de Tocqueville once declared that a new science was needed for a new world. The reason for the launch of this major new international journal is the belief that a new stage in the development of the world economic and political system has commenced, a new world order. Understanding it will require new modes of analysis and new theories, and a readiness to tear down intellectual barriers, bringing together many approaches, methods, and disciplines which for too long have been separated. In short, what is needed is a new political economy, which combines the breadth of vision which characterised the classical political economy of the nineteenth century with the analytical advances of twentieth century social science.

The methodology of the new political economy rejects the old dichotomy between agency and structure which fragmented classical political economy into separate disciplines. It seeks instead to build on those approaches in social science, such as structuration theory, institutional economics and new public choice, which have tried to develop an integrated analysis, thereby combining parsimonious theories which analyse agency in terms of instrumental rationality with contextual theories which analyse structures institutionally and historically.

The aim of New Political Economy is to create a forum for work which seeks to bridge past empirical and conceptual divides. The emphasis will be upon exploratory and innovative work which draws on different disciplines and which addresses core issues in the emerging research agenda.

For more information on The Political Economy Research Centre and New Political Economy contact their web site at Sheffield University.

Subscriptions