International Political Economy Working Group 2026 book prize winner announced
The International Political Economy Working Group (IPEG) Book Prize Committee is delighted to announce that the 2026 prize has been given to Benjamin Selwyn and Christin Bernhold's Capitalist Value Chains (Oxford University Press).
The committee felt that Capitalist Value Chains was an excellent, engaging, and inclusive piece of scholarship. The capitalist nature of global value chains and the multiple intersecting areas of exploitation are rigorously argued throughout the book. Drawing from a range of empirical examples, Selwyn and Bernhold aptly demonstrate how, in capitalism’s insatiable pursuit of profit, surplus value is extracted at multiple levels of the value chain. Exploring labour exploitation, nature destruction, and geopolitics, the book makes a significant contribution to IPE scholarship. Selwyn and Bernold were also commended by the committee for how readable the book was. Capitalist Value Chains is written in such a clear and concise way that scholars from inside and outside the IPE discipline will be able to engage with it.
The committee members also want to share how much they enjoyed reading the other shortlisted books, all of which were excellent and made for a very difficult decision. These were:
- Mareike Beck, Extroverted Financialisation
- Jennifer Clapp, Titans of Industrial Agriculture
- Peter Newell, States of Transition
- Stefano Ponte – Highly commended by the committee – Value Struggles.
Finally, as Chair, I would like to thank the work of the other committee members: Ilias Alami, Adam D Dixon, Saba Joshi, Natalie Langford, and Nicola Smith, for the considerable time they put into reading and commenting on the books.
Matt Barlow, University of Glasgow
IPEG Convenor and Book Prize Chair 2026