//podcastplus.net/feed/podcast~331d0c89ac153a8e69224e136555c1a4d5d22b45a36ba70ebd3c6b8064d7ee40 Poliko is a platform for the dissemination of exciting new theoretical and empirical research in political economy. It focuses on the interactions between political and economic institutions, ideas and behaviors but isn't limited to any particular discipline, methodology or theoretical tradition. This is a space to open up and share those longer academic discussions which usually take place around a dinner table. Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:22:49 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/10569232-the-african-programme-on-rethinking-development-economics-with-nicolas-pons-vignon-part-1-neoliberal-restructuring-in-south-africa.mp3 Today’s episode is the first part of a conversation with Nicolas Pons-Vignon who played an instrumental role in setting up Aporde, the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics, a unique training programme teaching heterodox development economics in South Africa. In this episode, we explore Nicolas’ personal research background and his outlook on South Africa’s post-apartheid developmental trajectory. We talk about some of the root causes of South African deindustrialization, the reception of neoliberal ideas by policymakers, the policy impact of neoclassical orthodoxy in economics departments, and the need for alternative, heterodox educational programs to broaden the horizons of policymakers in developing countries. After contextualising the reception of neoliberal ideas and policy templates in South Africa, we will continue this conversation with Nicolas in the subsequent episode by exploring how Aporde sought to offer an alternative educational model. To dig deeper, check out the texts... Fri, 06 May 2022 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/10569232-the-african-programme-on-rethinking-development-economics-with-nicolas-pons-vignon-part-1-neoliberal-restructuring-in-south-africa.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/9906270-the-crisis-of-the-liberal-international-order-with-ayse-zarakol.mp3 In today’s episode, I’m talking with Ayşe Zarakol from Cambridge University about the crisis of the Liberal International Order (LIO). Ayşe's work explores the contradictions of the LIO as a hierarchical order premised on the notions of freedom, rationality and equal participation: she examines how anti-liberal discontents in the western Core blame it for undermining their status in the global World System, while conversely  critics on the Semi-Periphery  see it as reproducing power asymmetries  benefiting the Core. Ayşe  examines the surprising connections and hyridization of these seemingly antithetical discourses, while her recent work compares the rise and fall of Eastern World Orders in the early modern period with the current crises of the LIO. You can follow Ayşe on Twitter @AyseZarakol Ayşe's Academia webpage: https://cambridge.academia.edu/AyseZarakol The link to the article we discuss in the episode : https://tinyurl.com/2p8zubvs The link to Ayşe&amp... Tue, 18 Jan 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/9906270-the-crisis-of-the-liberal-international-order-with-ayse-zarakol.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/9635154-the-world-development-report-2020-or-how-to-shore-up-fracturing-neoliberalism-with-jennifer-bair-and-benjamin-selwyn.mp3 In this episode, I invited Jennifer Bair and  Benjamin Selwyn to share their insights on the World Bank’s 2020 World Development Report. The WDR is the World Bank’s flagship publication, which aims at defining a hegemonic framework for thinking about development. In 2020, the WDR was entitled “Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains”. Jennifer and Benjamin both recently published critical papers on the  WDR 2020: We talk about the methodological and theoretical contradictions of the WDR, what it says about the strange non-death of neoliberalism, but also how the Global Value Chain (GVC) concept can be reclaimed by organized labor at a transnational level. To access the two papers we discuss: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/98024/ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0308518X211006718 You can follow Jennifer's work at: https://twitter.com/BairJenn https://sociology.as.virginia.edu/people/profile/jlb5md To follow Benjamin's work: ht... Tue, 30 Nov 2021 08:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/9635154-the-world-development-report-2020-or-how-to-shore-up-fracturing-neoliberalism-with-jennifer-bair-and-benjamin-selwyn.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8775514-displacements-surplus-workers-and-surplus-capital-discussing-urban-displacements-by-susanne-soederberg-book-preview.mp3 In today’s episode, we examine the interdependence between urban displacements, surplus populations and surplus capital in Susanne Soederberg’s recent book “Urban Displacements. Governing Surplus and Survival in Global Capitalism” published in late 2020 with Routledge.  We explore the links between surplus money and surplus workers, social and rental housing, precarious work and urban poverty under capitalism, but also the political role of state actors in the  reproduction of surplus capital and surplus populations  producing cycles of urban displacements. Check out Susanne's book "Urban Displacements. Governing Surplus and Survival in Global Capitalism" Available at: https://www.routledge.com/Urban-Displacements-Governing-Surplus-and-Survival-in-Global-Capitalism/Soederberg/p/book/9780367236199 You can follow Susanne on Twitter @soederberg1 Susanne's departmental webpage:  https://www.queensu.ca/devs/susanne-soederberg Susanne's publications on Rese... Tue, 29 Jun 2021 06:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8775514-displacements-surplus-workers-and-surplus-capital-discussing-urban-displacements-by-susanne-soederberg-book-preview.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8614056-public-banks-decarbonisation-definancialisation-and-democratisation-by-thomas-marois-book-preview.mp3 Today I am joined with Thomas Marois from the School of Oriental and African Studies to discuss the backdrop to his latest book  "Public Banks. Decarbonisation, Definancialisation and Democratisation" which is coming out with Cambridge University Press in May 2021. Critical social scientists have abundantly analyzed the ideas, institutions and power relations sustaining financialization - as well as the social and environmental dislocations it produces. Concrete, normative propositions about institutions that could offer alternatives are much rarer: Tom’s new book synthesizes his long empirical research on the institutional structures and politics of public banks in both the Global South and North, but also his normative stance on how public financial institutions could re-embed finance in society and leverage financial capital for politically just, socially productive and environmentally sound uses. Check out Tom's book here: http://cambridge.org/9781108839150 You may use the followin... Wed, 02 Jun 2021 17:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8614056-public-banks-decarbonisation-definancialisation-and-democratisation-by-thomas-marois-book-preview.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8547868-episode-06-rwanda-s-growth-miracle-in-context-industrial-policy-and-state-business-relations-in-sub-saharan-africa-with-pritish-behuria.mp3 Pritish Behuria from the University of Manchester has a long expertise in studying industrial policy and comparative developmental trajectories in Sub-Saharan Africa. In today’s episode, we first talk about the broader context of a supposedly post-neoliberal developmental framework where industrial policy is again on the agenda - even though problems such as fiscal space, structural change, access to technology and dependency on foreign capital have changed little if at all. Pritish also shares his analysis of the Rwandan case - the apparent success story of a  "growth miracle", which some explain with robust Weberian state capacities, while others brandish it as a model of financial liberalisation and good governance. Pritish analyzes a domestic political economy, where market liberalisation  marginalised domestic capitalists, who couldn’t as a result play an active role in diversification and structural change. Far from the miracle narrative, the Rwandan trajectory thus illustrates the inherent tens... Thu, 20 May 2021 17:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8547868-episode-06-rwanda-s-growth-miracle-in-context-industrial-policy-and-state-business-relations-in-sub-saharan-africa-with-pritish-behuria.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8460034-episode-05-socialize-data-beyond-the-anti-politics-of-digital-rentier-capitalism-with-jathan-sadowski.mp3 Today I’m talking with Jathan Sadowski from Monash University about the economic and political dimensions of digital capitalism. An emerging consensus sees digital data, its extraction and the concentration of Big Tech as signalling a dramatic shift towards a new age of “digital feudalism”: The story goes that digital services with minimal marginal costs enabled unprecedented market concentration in the hands of giant corporations, which  thrive on capturing rents in the form of data they mine from end users. For many liberal scholars, this marks a dysfunctional phase of capitalism where innovation and competition are stifled, whereas profit-driven "socially legitimate" accumulation is displaced by rentierism. Jathan argues on the contrary that contemporary forms of digital value capture sit in the continuity of capitalist accumulation strategies. We talk about the Internet of Things, smart devices and energy grids, platform-based services, new forms of territorial sovereignty exerted by private comp... Wed, 05 May 2021 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8460034-episode-05-socialize-data-beyond-the-anti-politics-of-digital-rentier-capitalism-with-jathan-sadowski.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8391996-episode-04-the-transperiphery-movement-exhibition-towards-a-global-history-of-peripheral-connections-with-zoltan-ginelli.mp3 I am talking today with Zoltán Ginelli, a Hungarian critical geographer whose research repositions the semi-peripheral experience of Hungarian modernization in a global context, by studying the many points of connections linking peoples, ideas, expertise, institutions and political utopias in Hungary to other peripheries in the postcolonial Global South. Zoltán has co-curated a fantastic exhibition in Budapest entitled  Transperiphery Movement, where he examines these trans-peripheral connections in collaboration with a host of artists and scholars. We talk about Zoltán’s own research on postcoloniality, race and global history from an Eastern European perspective, and the themes through which the exhibition examines these topics. The Transperiphery Movement Exhibition: https://offbiennale.hu/en/2021/projects/transzperiferia-mozgalom?fbclid=IwAR2UgccwXbjkYhLNjuF5NkXKO34WjNyAM0slS42L8FyVcWWtqjBXMo0O2FI https://transperiphery.com/ https://www.facebook.com/transperiphery Instagram: transperip... Sat, 24 Apr 2021 05:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8391996-episode-04-the-transperiphery-movement-exhibition-towards-a-global-history-of-peripheral-connections-with-zoltan-ginelli.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8295496-episode-03-the-geopolitical-economy-of-china-s-bri-in-central-asia-with-niva-yau-tsz-yan.mp3 Today I am talking about China’s engagement in Central Asia with Niva Yau Tsz Yan from the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. A region often overlooked by Western  media and academic research, Central Asia plays a central role in China's Belt and Road Initiative. Niva clarifies the relationship between China’s BRI projects in Central Asia and the militarisation of the South China Sea, and how Central Asia functions as a testing ground for initiatives that China seeks to export even further. She points out that the BRI is more than gigantic construction projects: digital soft infrastructure, ITC technologies such as Smart Cities and 5G, but also financial de-dollarization and education are core aspects which are materially and culturally changing the political economy of Central Asia. Niva’s ongoing research also sheds light on how Chinese projects in the region might affect regional and domestic politics, by pacifying inter-state relations marred by energy disputes, while on the other hand... Thu, 08 Apr 2021 19:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8295496-episode-03-the-geopolitical-economy-of-china-s-bri-in-central-asia-with-niva-yau-tsz-yan.mp3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8200935-episode-02-marxist-state-theory-for-de-orientalizing-state-capitalism-with-ilias-alami.mp3 State capitalism is today a label  often applied to China, Russia or the Arab Gulf as a model threatening to displace Western liberal conceptions of insulated markets driven by fair competition and minimal state interventions. In this episode, I'm asking  Ilias Alami from Maastricht University to unpack the concept: Rejecting a Western liberal Orientalizing discourse, which locates state capitalism beyond the West, Ilias argues on the contrary that the concept can be useful for understanding a restructuring of the State in both advanced and emerging market economies. Ilias points to Marxist state theory as a rich tradition for contextualizing contemporary state capitalism as an answer to ongoing crises of capitalist accumulation. You can follow Ilias online at: Twitter: https://twitter.com/iliasalami Academia: https://maastrichtuniversity.academia.edu/IliasAlami Website: https://sites.google.com/tbs-education.org/ilias-alami/home Blog: https://developingeconomics.org Check ... Thu, 25 Mar 2021 20:00:00 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1725887/8200935-episode-02-marxist-state-theory-for-de-orientalizing-state-capitalism-with-ilias-alami.mp3