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Critical Political Economy is a transdisciplinary field of enquiry that is gaining ever more popularity among scholars and activists alike. In addition to analysing social power relations that revolve around how humans collectively organise production and social reproduction over time and space, Critical Political Economy also problematises the resulting social inequalities and asymmetrical manifestations in private and public (state-)institutional settings. Particularly the various forms of exploitation that are constitutive to the continuation of global capitalism are brought into question rather than accepted as givens. Critical Political Economy not only offers a particular way of understanding the world, but also seeks to produce knowledge that allows for social emancipation and that ultimately contributes to the politicisation and the resilience of social struggles. Thus, while giving ontological primacy to the negative, Critical Political Economy is essentially committed to a positive ontology by animating and awakening radical imagination about alternative futures.

In response to the 2008 financial crisis and rising competitive pressures from emerging markets, EU industrial policy has made a major comeback. One of the flagship policies is Smart Specialisation, which is located at the intersection of industrial and cohesion policy, and which serves the twin purpose of catalysing the transition of manufacturing sectors to innovative Industry 4.0‐type technologies, as well as inducing social and territorial cohesion and upward economic convergence. Employing a critical political economy perspective that accounts for the interplay between state regulation and capitalism's general dynamic of uneven and combined development, the article argues that Smart Specialisation is unlikely to lead to the proclaimed and much‐needed economic intra‐EU convergence. Although individual Smart Specialisation projects undoubtedly can lead to a technological upgrading, narrowing the gap between advanced high‐tech regions and rapidly de‐industrializing regions, or regions locked into labour‐intensive, low value‐added and less knowledge‐intensive production, remains a pipedream.

Whereas Marxist literatures are almost automatically considered 'critical' in canonical overviews on critical approaches, anarchism is often sidelined. Scholarly engagements between Marxists and anarchists, moreover, can be overshadowed by orthodox platitudes. This article explores 'the critical' in anarchism and identifies the anarchist transformative praxis of prefiguration, propaganda by the deed and direct action as the crux of what it means to be critical. Rather than seeking to reconcile what may or may not be reconciled, the article suggests that a joint commitment to being critical allows for the exploitation of productive tensions, and hence possibilities for a future left-wing convergence.

Sozialdemokratische Parteien befürworten nachdrücklich die europäische Integration. Dennoch ist es das europäische Projekt, das ihren Wahlchancen am meisten schadet. Der Artikel zeigt, dass der Niedergang der europäischen Sozialdemokratie im Scheitern der Politik des Dritten Weges zu verorten ist. Auf EU-Ebene zeigt sich dies einerseits im sozialdemokratischen Mitwirken der internen Abwertung durch Lohnmäßigung und Arbeitsmarktflexibilisierung, wie auch der sozialdemokratischen Unterstützung des Verteidigungsfonds als Teil der neuen Industriepolitik der EU, und andererseits der sozialdemokratische Priorisierung von Wettbewerbslogiken, die die Glaubwürdigkeit von flankierenden sozialdemokratischen Projekten wie dem Europäischen Sozialmodell und der Europäischen Säule sozialer Rechte maßgeblich untergräbt.