The Political Economy Landscape

This article presents a discussion of the current landscape of political economy. It teases out the contested understandings of political economy, explores the contributions from different political and economic traditions focusing in particular on the contribution of feminist economics. In its recount of conversations with Nancy Folbre, the preeminent feminist economist in the area of care, it examines how gender interacts with concepts of reciprocity, implicit contracts of care, and how the social norms are constructed in ways that reinforce women’s responsibility for care. The gradual surfacing of a feminist political economy perspective on care is identified and the complex way in which institutions, power relations, and exploitation are embedded in care relations is explored.