SPERI Presents...

What actually is an electrostate? How do the material substances of electricity and fossil fuels shape state power? Is the US a petrostate and does this question expose the flimsiness of the concept? When we talk about electrostates, do we really just mean China?

Freddie Daley is a Research Associate at the Centre for Global Political Economy University of Sussex. He joins Josh White to discuss his recent article 'Making sense of the electrostate' (2026), co-authored with Professor Peter Newell, published in Globalizations journal. They consider definitions of the often slippery concept; the relationship between electrification and fossil fuel use; how major shifts in geopolitics like the US' war in Iran are creating new dependencies and trade relations; and the need to push back against crude simplifications in political economy debates.

'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.

The series is produced by Chris Saltmarsh and Josh White. This episode was edited by Josh White with support from Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why has the Global South been peripheralized in the study of international political economy (IPE)? What does this cause us to miss in our scholarship? How are sovereignties and power dynamics produced in the Global South? How should teaching IPE change?

Zaynab El Bernoussi is Associate Professor of Political Science at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University (GSU) and Bashir Saade is Lecturer in Religion & Politics at University of Sterling. They join Josh White to discuss their textbook 'International Political Economy and the Global South Perspectives from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East', co-authored with Adriana María Garriga-López and Giuliano Martiniello, published with Routledge. They consider how the peripheralization of the Global South leaves us with an incomplete understanding of IPE; how the decentralisation of IPE causes us to challenge state-centric conceptions; the importance of labour and social movements in shaping sovereignties and forms of power; and the necessity of historicization.

'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.

The series is produced by Chris Saltmarsh and Josh White. This episode was edited by Josh White with support from Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How is value constructed and contested in the wine industry? What is the significance of place and nature? What does the win industry tell us about capitalist production in general?

Stefano Ponte is Professor of International Political Economy at Copenhagen Business School. He joins Josh White to discuss his book Value Struggles: Looking at Capitalism through the Wine Glass (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) which is available as open access. The conversation includes definitions of value and the role of determining it in capitalist production; the significance of terroir and tradition in valuing wine; the institutional politics of prosecco; the ecological consequences of wine production and contestation over sustainability certification; and the racialised contingencies of labour and investment in South Africa.

'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.

The series is produced by Chris Saltmarsh and Josh White. This episode was edited by Josh White with support from Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How should we understand the ruptural shift of the second China shock? How does it effect what we thought we knew about China and global production? How can we study this transformation? What comes next?

Professor Yvette To is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr Frank Maracchione is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS, University of London. Dr Shizhi Zhang is a post-doctoral Research Associate at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. Dr Zhengli Huang is a Research Associate also at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield.

They join Chris Saltmarsh to discuss the theoretical and empirical challenges posed by the the reconfiguration of production networks led by China poses a fresh set of theoretical and empirical challenges; how existing paradigms of development, dependency, and power in the global economy are being unsettled; and in what ways scholars and policymakers alike must rethink the frameworks they use to study global production from the systemic to the everyday levels.

This SPERI Presents... episode is a live recording of the roundtable "The global impact of China’s technological leadership and offshoring: Towards a second China shock" at BISA26 conference. It was sponsored by the International Political Economy Working Group (IPEG) and took place in Brighton on Thursday 4 June 2026.

This episode is produced by Frank Maracchione and Chris Saltmarsh and edited by Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How are Chinese firms' activities in Africa shaped by local social, cultural and political processes? In what sense is this embeddedness flexible and how does this affect firms' internationalisation? What is specific and generalisable about Chinese firms? How are geographies of trade and production shifting towards South-South engagement?

Dr Elisa Gambino is Hallsworth Research Fellow in Political Economy at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester, UK and Adjunct Researcher at the Centre for Asian Studies of the University of Ghana. She joins Josh White to discuss her article 'Flexible embeddedness: how Chinese lead firms internationalise in Africa' (2026), published in Review of International Political Economy and co-authored with Costanza Franceschini. They unpack the concept of flexible embeddedness through the lens of Chinese lead firms' internationalisation in Kenya and Ghana and the varied, dynamic and contested nature of South-South engagement.

'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.

The series is produced by Chris Saltmarsh and Josh White. This episode was edited by Josh White with support from Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.