Cultural political economy

a presentation

Abstract

This article presents the Cultural Political Economy (CPE) approach developed by Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum. EPC is dedicated to analyzing the phenomena of political economy, dialectically bringing together its semiotic and extra-semiotic aspects. In other words, they raise the analytical possibility of understanding the various phenomena classified as objects of political economy, understanding the interrelated dynamism of their material and cultural faces. The theoretical roots of the EPC will be presented, the intellectual debate raised around the approach, its main analytical tools, with special emphasis on the concept of “economic imaginaries”, a set of different applications that have been carried out by different authors, the developments and the main criticisms and disagreements. At the end, a brief assessment is made, considering the criticisms and development possibilities of the approach, understanding the flexibility, in analytical terms, that it allows as a positive contribution. The main challenges identified are the balance between the semiotic and the extra-semiotic, as well as the need for a greater number of empirical studies that demonstrate their explanatory power. Finally, a radicalization of the heterodoxy of the approach is proposed, so that a constructive dialogue is created with other theoretical currents.