Books for Review

Propsective book or literature reviewers are invited to explore the following works, published recently by political economists and their colleages. This list is maintained by the Editorial Team, but suggestions are welcome!

Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel, Animals and Capital (2023, Edinburgh UP)

(theories of value, animal welfare, animal studies, labour, posthumanism, Karl Marx)

Building on Karl Marx’s value theory, Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel argues that factory farms and industrial fisheries are not merely an example of unchecked human supremacism. Nor a result of the victory of market forces. But a combination of both. Wadiwel untangles this contemporary handshake between hierarchical anthropocentrism and capitalism.

In the series Animalities. See the author's article in Progress in Political Economy.

Gareth Bryant and Sophie Webber, Climate Finance: Taking a Position on Climate Futures (2024, Agenda Publishing)

(development, sustainability, climate change, environmental political economy, corporate finance, investment)

This book identifies six perspectives in the political economy and economic geography of climate finance, making sense of the array of financial instruments, institutions and ideas that are remaking the relationship between capitalism and climate change.

In the series Economic Transformations.

Cornelia Woll, Corporate Crime and Punishment: The Politics of Negotiated Justice in Global Markets (2023, Princeton UP)

(US law, global makets, corporate accountability and power, economic justice)

This book examines the politics of American corporate criminal law’s extraterritorial reach. The evolution of prosecution of corporate crime  demonstrates there has been profound transformation of the relationship between states and private actors in world markets, showing that law is part of economic statecraft in the connected global economy.

See this interview with the author, or this podcast episode.

Claire Parfitt, False Profits of Ethical Capital: Finance, Labour and the Politics of Risk (2024, Manchester UP)

(crisis, capital accumulation, profit, finance, de-risking, financial sector)

This book grapples with the technical and rhetorical functions of ethical capital for profit and accumulation. It provides a novel analysis of the dynamics between finance, capital and labour, offering a refreshing perspective on struggles interlocking social, ecological and economic crises, and suggesting new ways of thinking about sustainability politics.

In the series Progress in Political Economy.