Richard Westra’s current research interests include the political economy of ecosustainable and equitable alternative historical societies, critical analysis of globalization, financialization and neoliberalism, epistemology, ontology and science in the study of economics, East Asian political economy, comparative and international politics and ideology in social science.

Select Recent Publications

Single Authored Books

• The Political Economy of Eco-sustainable Alternatives: Progressive and Equitable Futures (London: Routledge 2025). https://www.routledge.com/Political-Economy-of-Eco-sustainable-Alternatives-Progressive-and-Equitable-Futures/Westra/p/book/9781032628851 
• The Political Economy of Post-Capitalism: Financialization, Globalization and Neofeudalism (London: Routledge 2024). https://www.routledge.com/The-Political-Economy-of-Post-Capitalism-Financialization-Globalization/Westra/p/book/9781032603575
• Economics, Science and Capitalism (London: Routledge, 2021). Paperback edition (2023). https://www.routledge.com/Economics-Science-and-Capitalism/Westra/p/book/9780367610425
• Periodizing Capitalism and Capitalist Extinction (Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2019). Paperback edition (2020). https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-14390-9
  

Edited/Co-edited Books

• Richard Westra, Robert Albritton and Seongjin Jeong (eds.) Varieties of Alternative Economic Systems: Practical Utopias for an Age of Global Crisis and Austerity (London: Routledge, 2017). https://www.routledge.com/Varieties-of-Alternative-Economic-Systems-Practical-Utopias-for-an-Age-of-Global-Crisis-and-Austerity/Westra-Albritton-Jeong/p/book/9780367250911
• Richard Westra (ed.) The Political Economy of Emerging Markets: Varieties of BRICS in the Age of Global Crises and Austerity (London: Routledge, 2017). https://www.routledge.com/The-Political-Economy-of-Emerging-Markets-Varieties-of-BRICS-in-the-Age-of-Global-Crises-and-Austerity/Westra/p/book/9780367251000
• Richard Westra, Dennis Badeen and Robert Albritton (eds.) The Future of Capitalism After the Financial Crisis: The Varieties of Capitalism Debate in the Age of Austerity (London: Routledge, 2015). Paperback edition (London: Routledge 2016). https://www.routledge.com/The-Future-of-Capitalism-After-the-Financial-Crisis-The-Varieties-of-Capitalism-Debate-in-the-Age-of-Austerity/Westra-Badeen-Albritton/p/book/9781138226784

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles 

• "Market Society as a Liberal Utopia", Journal of Contemporary Asia, online first https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2026.2642131 
• "Marxism and Capitalism Forever: A Response to Smith", Journal of Contemporary Asia, 55, 5 (2025) 855-878.
• “The Question of Socialism in China: A Introduction”, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 53, 5 (2023) pp. 749-66.
• “Rescuing Marx from a Ship of Fools”, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 53, 2 (2023) pp. 335-54.
• “Capitalism, Democracy and the Neoliberal Authoritarian Trifecta” Journal of Australian Political Economy. Special Issue on W(h)ither Democracy? Revisiting Neoliberalism and Democracy in Contemporary Capitalism, 86 (Summer 2020-21) pp. 204-29
• “East Asia in the Global Economy: Theoretical and Empirical Questions for
  Marxism”, Journal of Contemporary Asia. Special Issue: Marxist Perspectives on East Asia in the Global Economy, 50, 2 (2020) pp. 178-193)
• “An Unoist Perspective on the Agrarian Question in Capitalist Development”, The Japanese Political Economy for Special Issue: Is the Uno School Approach Relevant to Understanding Present-day Capitalism? 45, 3-4 (2019) pp. 184-212.
• “Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism and the Social Science of Marxian Economics”, Review of Radical Political Economics, 51, 3 (2019) pp. 365-382.
  
• “Financialization and Marxism”, Science and Society, 83, 1 (2019) pp. 117-26.
• “Social Class in China Today”, Historical Materialism, 26, 4 (2018) pp. 194-213.
• “A Theoretical Note on Commodification of Labour Power in China and the Global Putting-out System”, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 48, 1 (2018) pp. 159-71.
  

Journalistic Articles/Op-eds 

• "Citizen Mercenaries and the Gaza Genocide", The Bullet, June 6, 2025, https://socialistproject.ca/2025/06/citizen-mercenaries-and-gaza-genocide/ 
• “Science, Identity Politics and Back to Reality with Marx”, Union for Radical Political Economics Forum, May 2, 2025, https://urpe.org/2025/05/02/science-identity-politics-and-back-to-reality-with-marx/  
• “Inflation Interrupted?” The Bullet, January 25, 2023, https://socialistproject.ca/2023/01/deflation-interrupted/
• “Inflation: an interrupted moment of deflation” (in Dutch, translation by Jelle Versieren), Masareelfonds December 19, 2022, https://www.masereelfonds.be/richard-westra-inflatie-een-onderbroken-moment-van-deflatie/
• “Marx, Uno and the Science of Economic Laws in “Capital”, Positions Politics, episteme 9. Uno Kozo’s Theory of Crisis: A Symposium, October 4, 2022, https://positionspolitics.org/marx-uno-and-the-science-of-economic-laws-in-capital/
• “Critical Realism and Marxism”, Marxist sociology blog: Theory, research, politics, April 16, 2020, https://marxistsociology.org/2020/04/critical-realism-and-marxism/
• “Green Designs for 21st Century Socialism”, The Bullet, August 13, 2019, https://socialistproject.ca/2019/08/green-designs-for-21st-century-socialism/
• “Apocalypse Economics and Economic Apocalypse”, Exploring Economic History with Palgrave Macmillan, July 2019, https://www.palgrave.com/gb/blogs/business-economics-finance-management/exploring-economic-history/periodizing-capitalism-and-capitalist-extinction
• “United States Deficits 101”, World Financial Review, June 29, 2018, http://www.worldfinancialreview.com/?p=31910

Richard Westra is University Professor (Habilitation equivalent) at the University of Opole, Poland and international Adjunct Professor in the Center for Macau Studies, University of Macau, Macau. On receiving his Ph.D. at Queen’s University, Canada in 2001, his career has taken him around the world where he has taught at universities in the UK, The Bahamas, South Korea, Thailand, Japan and Canada. He is author or editor of 21 books along with scores of chapters and articles in peer reviewed outlets. He is co-editor of Journal of Contemporary Asia, co-editor of The Japanese Political Economy and on the Executive editorial board of Marxism 21.