Building alternative scholarly folklores: an intellectual-institutional history of Global Political Economy

Abstract

This article reflects on how the journal Global Political Economy arrived at this point. It does not consider the more recent years, of engagement and subsequent contracting with Bristol University Press, focusing instead on my own experiences of working as part of the collective effort to launch such a journal from 2009 to 2016. The article utilises my recollections and documentary sources to offer an intellectual-institutional history of this endeavour. In particular, I argue that particular folklores about critical political economy scholarship served to caricature such research and, consequently, to prevent publishers from contracting the journal – even when presented with arguments and evidence that countered such notions. As such, this article shows how the building of alternative scholarly folklores, as embodied in journals such as Global Political Economy, often entails the painstaking, regularly disrupted and long-term mobilisation of our energies.

Introduction to the launch issue

“…Ian Bruff (2022) delivers the third article 'Building alternative scholarly folklores: an intellectual-institutional history of the Global Political Economy journal'. This is a very special contribution to the journal as it traces how this collective project was initiated and shaped.…”