Queen Mary academic bags international political economy award

Professor Liam Campling won BISA’s International Political Economy Working Group (IPEG) award 2022 for his book ‘Capitalism and the Sea’, co-authored with Birkbeck University of London’s Professor Alejandro Colás.

The award-winning book traces the political economy, ecology and geopolitics of the sea to show that the earth’s geographical separation into land and sea has significant – but under-studied – consequences for rethinking how capitalism works.

Campling and his co-author challenge land-based narratives of capitalist development and reveal how struggles over sovereignty, exploitation and appropriation in the capture and coding of maritime spaces and resources has shaped the modern world.

Award judges praised the book as offering the first systematic attempt to think through the implications of the earth’s geographical separation into land and sea for capitalist development. The IPEG Book Prize Committee said: “Campling and Colás are worthy recipients of this year’s IPEG Book Prize and the committee congratulates them on this immensely important work.”

Following the win, Professor Campling said: “Alex Colás and I are delighted to be awarded the BISA IPEG 2022 book prize for ‘Capitalism and the Sea’. The shortlist and winners of this award have always been an annual showcase of the rich and varied field of critical (international) political economy and, given the especially brilliant books on this year’s shortlist, it is an immense honour and morale booster to win this prestigious prize.”

IPEG awards a book prize every year for a monograph published in the previous calendar year, which is the defining award in the field of international political economy.