Everyday Politics of the World Economy

In the introductory chapter we set out the parameters of everyday international political economy (EIPE). In this final, concluding chapter we undertake three tasks. First, we elaborate on the ‘puzzle-set’ framework set out in the Introduction. The puzzle sets provide us with a way of thinking about new topics that EIPE brings to light, many of which have conventionally been ignored. Second, we present ways in which the teaching of EIPE might be conducted, not least so as to consolidate the arguments made for EIPE. And third, we focus on the policy implications of our approach. In short, this concluding chapter outlines why puzzle sets are of heuristic value; how they provide a coherent teaching program for students to productively blend regulatory IPE (RIPE) and EIPE to new ends, and the insights that the EIPE puzzle set may bring to real-world policy development.

Puzzle sets not research programs

EIPE seeks to channel the many research agendas of heterodox IPE through a focus on everyday actor agency, while also addressing the concerns of RIPE. As established in the Introduction, within orthodox IPE a range of prominent scholars have expressed some dissatisfaction with the narrowness of questions asked within the discipline and have lamented the growing gap between research driven by demonstrations of social scientific rigour within a research program and policy relevance (Katzenstein et al. 1998).