Articulating difference: the problem of the other in international political economy

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that advancing our understanding of international political economy (IPE) entails posing the question of otherness and difference as an object of theoretical and historical inquiry. It suggests that the discourses of postmodernism, feminism, and postcolonial criticism directly contribute to IPE by locating the problematic of identity/difference at the center of the dialectic of social change. By pinpointing the strength and the problematic nature of each of these discourses, it argues that the reconstruction of IPE based on the recognition of difference requires ‘an empathetic cooperation’ among these discourses as a precondition for the creation of a dialogical interaction between theoretical discourse and subject-positions to whom it is addressed.