Political economy, in its various guises and transfigurations, is a research philosophy that presents both social commentary and theoretical progress and is concerned with a number of different topics: politics, regulation and governance, production systems, social relations, inequality and development amongst many others. As a critical theory, political economy seeks to provide an understanding of societies - and of the structures and social relations that form them - in order to evoke social change toward more equitable conditions.

Despite the early influence of critical...