Amidst the continued debate surrounding the foundations of IPE and recent methodological and theoretical divides, the authors argue that an attempt should be made to re-visit the notion of the 'critical'. They assess the development of so-called critical IPE and interrogate whether the theoretical foundations it was built upon have reached their potential. This challenge is taken up in a number of different ways, but all share a common concern: to re-assess the purpose of critical approaches and to reflect on why certain social theorists have been favoured as a point of departure, yet others have largely been ignored. In light of recent debates on the notion of a 'trans-Atlantic divide' within IPE, this book demonstrates how the distinction between the 'critical' and the 'orthodox' (or 'empirical') is only significant if the 'critical' is geared towards a larger, more substantial body of critical social enquiry and engages with what it means to conduct such enquiry.

Introduction: 'Critical' and 'International Political Economy'; S.Shields, I.Bruff & H.Macartney
PART I: DIALOGUE
Missing Voices: Critical IPE, Disciplinary History and H.N. Brailsford's Analysis of the Capitalist International Anarchy; L.M.Ashworth
Space, the latest frontier? A scalar-relational approach to critical IPE; H.Macartney & S.Shields
Poststructuralism in/and IPE; P.Griffin
PART II: DEBATE
New Marxism and the Problem of Subjectivity: Towards a Critical and Historical International Political Economy; R.Germain
Overcoming the State/Market Dichotomy; I.Bruff
Critical Feminist Scholarship and IPE; J.Elias
PART III: DISSENSUS
Reclaiming Critical IPE from the 'British' School; O.Worth
'What's Critical about Critical Theory?' Feminist Materialism, Intersectionality and the Social Totality of the Frankfurt School; A.Fischer & D.Tepe
Knowledge versus Power in the Field of IPE; P.Cammack
Conclusion: IPE and the International Political Economy? IPE or the International Political Economy?; S.Shields, I.Bruff & H.Macartney

Stuart Shields is Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at the University of Manchester, UK. His book The International Political Economy of Transition (2012) was shortlisted for the 2013 BISA IPEG book prize.
Ian Bruff is Lecturer in European Politics at the University of Manchester, UK. He has published widely on European political economy(ies), debates on comparing capitalisms, neoliberalism, and social theory, and is currently researching the political economy of neoliberalism in Europe.
Huw Macartney is Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author of European Democratic Legitimacy and the Debt Crisis (2013) and Variegated Neoliberalism: European Varieties of Capitalism and International Political Economy (2010).