Progress, pluralism and science: moving from alienated to engaged pluralism

The encompassing scale and scope of International Political Economy (IPE) is rare in the social sciences. Our subject matter affects the way our field organizes and produces knowledge: we study complex overlapping systems where the challenges of adequate description and causal explanation are especially difficult, and as such IPE scholarship borrows from a vast range of social theory and methods. While holding enormous productive potential, this space for pluralism, as currently practiced, risks culminating in the fragmentation of knowledge: what I call 'alienated pluralism'. A different, 'engaged pluralism' as I propose would retain the diversity of IPE's many approaches and traditions, but would promise greater knowledge synthesis. I argue that stronger adherence to a scientific ethos can assist in building this 'engaged pluralism'.

Automated summary

The encompassing scale and scope of International Political Economy (IPE) in the social sciences studies complex overlapping systems, borrowing from a vast range of social theory and methods. The current pluralism in IPE risks culminating in fragmentation of knowledge, while proposing 'engaged pluralism' for greater knowledge synthesis. A stronger adherence to a scientific ethos is argued to assist in building this 'engaged pluralism'.