The Elusive Karl Polanyi

The article focuses on author Karl Polanyi and his works including "Origins of the Cataclysm," "Freedom from Economics" and "The Liberal Utopia." It mentions the role Polanyi and his works during the Great Recession and in the analysis of the social movement in the age of Porto Alegre and Seattle as they can be compared to a totem for social democracy such as Karl Marx for communism and Hayek for neoliberalism. It adds that during the Great Recession, Polanyi was considered a master theorist of the welfare state. It also cites Polanyi as a social leader and an uneasy fit to a social order.