Development Theory and the Constitution of Market Society: A Polanyian View

Abstract This paper argues that development studies could benefit from a closer engagement with the arguments of Karl Polanyi. Firstly, a Polanyian perspective gives greater weight to non-economic and non-material factors in making, maintaining and modifying markets. Secondly, it focuses research on the problematic, state- sponsored and contested process of bringing the market actor into being. Finally, a Polanyian approach might better link a, broadly speaking, leftist analysis to 'real world' policy debates about the relative balance between market freedoms and regulation. The conclusion elaborates this final point.