Political Economy of Imperialism and Liberation

The political economy of imperialism and liberation examines the structures and processes through which economic power is organised, contested and transformed across global regions. It traces how capital accumulation, trade relations and debt instruments have historically reinforced hierarchies between core and peripheral territories, embedding inequalities in legal frameworks, financial networks and labour regimes. At the same time, this field illuminates the strategies by which colonised and exploited societies mobilise for autonomy, from anti‐colonial movements and socialist experiments to demands for reparations and debt cancellation. Recent scholarship foregrounds how patterns of resource extraction, credit dependency and intellectual property rights perpetuate a neo‐imperial order even as new forms of resistance—ranging from participatory budgeting to climate justice alliances—assert claims to economic self‐determination. By integrating insights from structural economics, world‐systems analysis and critical development studies, this research agenda reveals both the entrenched nature of global inequality and the possibilities for emancipatory change rooted in collective agency and alternative institutions.

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Political Economy of Imperialism and Liberation publication trend

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Technical terms

Imperialism: A system of economic and political domination in which powerful states extend control over less powerful regions to secure resources, markets and strategic advantage.

Neoliberalism: A policy paradigm emphasising deregulation, privatisation and free‐market principles that often reduce social protections and intensify global inequalities.

Structuralism: An analytical framework that locates development dynamics in the historical and institutional structures governing production, distribution and consumption rather than individual market decisions.

Peripheral labour: Work carried out in regions positioned outside core centres of capital accumulation, often characterised by low wages, precarious conditions and high exposure to environmental harm.

References

1. Prebisch and the terms of trade. Resources Policy (2024).
2. Africa's Next Debt Crisis: A Relational Comparison of Chinese and Western Lending to Zambia. Antipode (2023).
3. A People’s Green New Deal: Obstacles and Prospects. Agrarian South Journal of Political Economy A triannual Journal of Agrarian South Network and CARES (2021).
4. Peripheral Labour and Accumulation on a World Scale in the Green Transitions. Social Sciences (2023).