Oleg Komlik — International Political Economy scholars miss THE question of the 21st century: the rise of a planetary labor class living in poverty

In the recent years, more and more International Political Economy (IPE) scholars are dissatisfied with the current state of this field of research and desire to identify the ‘Big Questions’ of the 21st century. In this (open access) article, Benjamin Selwyn (University of Sussex) argues, however, that they miss the Really Big Question of the 21st century: the rise of a planetary labouring class of over 3 billion (and counting), living, for the most part, in poverty or near-poverty. 

While this class’s existence is not new (although its size is), International Political Economy’s ignorance of it, as well of capital–labour relations in general, is as old as the discipline’s institutional formation. This important article shows that mainstream International Political Economy’s sidelining of class relations disables it from explaining the global systemic transformations that underpin changes in the relations between states and markets (International Political Economy’s traditional focus). Selwyn illustrates the long-term making of the global labouring class by discussing three examples of global systemic transformation: the rise of capitalism; the post-1945 embedded liberalism–development project conjuncture; and contemporary globalisation.

Economic Sociology and Political Economy

International Political Economy scholars miss THE question of the 21st century: the rise of a planetary labor class living in poverty
Oleg Komlik | Oleg Komlik is a PhD Candidate in Economic Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and a Lecturer in the School of Behavioral Sciences at the College of Management Academic Studies, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Sociology and Anthropology