'Out in the dark': knowledge, power and IPE in southern Africa

Vale, Peter; Thakur, Vineet

Abstract

Benjamin Cohen's disciplinary history of international political economy (IPE) begins with the premise that Africa has had little to contribute to this global discipline. Differing from this view, we argue that disciplinary histories such as Cohen's elide the relationship between the discipline and its field. It is only through the juxtaposition of knowledge, power and politics that we can arrive at a fuller historical understanding of theinternational political economy. We further argue that political economy as an intellectual project has been central to the creation of the political economy of southern Africa. In a historical narrative of this idea in this region, we demonstrate that states and markets have remained prisoners of their mainstream intellectual manifestations, although subversive lives of political economy persist in some critical corners.

Citation

Vale, P., & Thakur, V. (2015). 'Out in the dark': knowledge, power and IPE in southern Africa. Contexto internacional, 37(3), 1011-1040. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-85292015000300008

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 30, 2015
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Apr 6, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 17, 2019
• Journal: Contexto Internacional
• Print ISSN: 0102-8529
• Electronic ISSN: 1982-0240
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 1011-1040
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-85292015000300008
• Keywords: International Political Economy; Southern Africa; Intellectual History; Regimes; Ideology