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This paper examines the contributions of James Ronald Stanfield to social and political economy. We start the analysis with Stanfield's contribution to institution building through his education of PhD students, building a graduate program in political economy, and through the associations of social and political economy. Then we go on to scrutinise his creative developments and applications of the notions of economic surplus and social reproduction. This is followed by his extensive work on...

Under the guidance of a recrudescent nineteenth century ideology, the governance of the global economy has been profoundly altered in the past three decades; indeed, a veritable Great Capitalist Restoration has emerged. It is important to view the transitioning economies and emerging market economies as part of this massive shift in governance. The concept of economic surplus offers a useful perspective on the political economy of governance regimes. Karl Polanyi's post-Marxian view of lives...

A number of large-scale transformations have shaped the economy, polity and society of India over the past quarter century. This book provides a detailed account of three that are of particular importance: the advent of liberal economic reform, the ascendance of Hindu cultural nationalism, and the empowerment of historically subordinate classes through popular democratic mobilizations. Filling a gap in existing literature, the book goes beyond looking at the transformations in isolation,...

A fundamental principle of Karl Polanyi's institutional outlook is that any economic system has to be considered as a whole and as a historically specific social organization. This principle implies a comparative method and a critique of conventional economics. Besides, the problem of the interrelation between the economic system and other aspects of social life cannot be avoided. On this basis, Polanyi points out the peculiar "economic" nature of the market-capitalist society and explains...

How does the causality between society and the economy run? After examining this fundamental question from the perspective of Polanyian economics, we conclude that the modern national economy is where bargained exchange is institutionalized by society to pre-exist with the aid of discipline over currency issues. However, this discipline is not provided with a proper institutional defense; and potential fragility of the modern national economy owing to this fact was most vividly revealed by...

This paper uses Polanyi's 1944 analysis of policy change—in which there are long-term swings from state regulation to markets and back again, as the consequences of one regime lead to political reactions that in turn reverse the policies. It shows how the Polanyi analysis continued to apply throughout the twentieth and early-twenty-first century, well beyond when he wrote, and that the swings also apply to developing country policy-making. It argues that there are new signs of policy...

There has been a qualitative shift in the character of international labour migration with increased temporary labour migration. With circumscribed employment rights, the increased significance of temporary migrant workers underscores arguments that globalisation has engendered a more profound commodification of labour. The instrumentalist approach, especially of international financial institutions in promoting temporary labour migration as a panacea for development, reinforces this...

The crisis of the institutions of liberal capitalism dates back to the last decades of the nineteenth century. Economics was thenceforth forced to radically reconsider its achievements and even its basic presuppositions, to the extent that they were linked to a free-market and perfect-competition model.

Karl Polanyi is considered one of the most prominent social scientists of the 20th century. In his writings, an important concern was the relationship between the markets and the society (therefore, the state) as a whole; to discuss it, he introduced the concept of "embeddedness", fundamental for his study of the origins and consequences of the Industrial Revolution. An important part of his heritage is the study of the economic history of what he called "ancient societies," especially of...

The core economic functions of production and distribution of goods can be handled by many different methods. After the fall of communism, the market mechanism has become nearly universal. Conventional economic theories argue that this is natural, because it is the best and the most efficient method for organizing economic affairs in a society. This paper, based on the analysis of Polanyi (1944) and Klein (2008) argues that the opposite is true. Market mechanisms conflict with natural...

The paper aims to examine Karl Polanyi's view of market evolution in the context of the emergence of a national grain market in China's transition economy. The dataset used includes information about inter-provincial grain trade on China's grain market from November 1999 to October 2000. A priori blockmodelling method is used for hypothesis testing. This paper finds that a partially integrated national grain market had emerged at the beginning of the twenty-first century in China in spite of...

China’s integration into the global economy, while rapid, has been managed as part of a wider liberalization process. The structural changes in the rural economy arising from these twin processes have led to widening intra-rural inequalities. To address these, the central leadership has, in Polanyian manner, moved to counter some of the adverse effects of liberalization and globalization. We discuss this dynamic as it has affected rural China. We analyze results from a national data set...

Karl Polanyi considered that the relationship between the markets and their societies was a central feature of any social order. He studied what he called "ancient societies," to compare them with his own times, in an effort to understand that subject This paper aims to show, following Polanyi's work on Classical Greece, that it is possible to make a clear analogy between the Athenian state and economy with the modern Welfare State. First, we present Polanyi's study of the early Athenian...

This note draws on Polanyi's pendulum in economic policies presented in the the Great Transformation—with swings back and forth between strong restrictions on the market and market domination, each resulting from excesses of the dominant model. The swing he described, when he wrote, was a reaction to the consequences of market domination, notably the Great Depression, and ushered in Keynesianism and the welfare state. In the late twentieth century, there was a swing back towards the market...

Purpose – This paper sets out to investigate the potential contribution of the inter‐disciplinary field of ecological economics to the explanation of the current economic crisis. The root of the crisis is the growing disjuncture between the real economy of production and the paper economy of finance. Design/methodology/approach – The authors trace the epistemological origins of this disjuncture to the myths of economism – a mix of academic, popular and political beliefs that served to...

Polanyi (1944, [1957]1968) has distinguished three “patterns of social integration,” namely, “reciprocity,”“redistribution,” and “exchange.” This triad has provided the starting point for most subsequent discussion. Our purpose is to introduce a further type of coordination, the “destructive mode of coordination.” This mode achieves coordination by intimidation, threat, and the use of non-institutionalized coercive means. Resources and human efforts are allocated in order to appropriate what...

The recent period of intensive and extensive development of global economic integration, or globalization, has reached a crossroads. The regime of the neoliberal Great Capitalist Restoration is not sustainable and fundamental governance changes must be made. This paper adds perspective to the choices that must be made at this critical juncture of the global social economy by applying the master concepts of Schumpeter's Creative Destruction and Polanyi's Protective Response.

The foundations of Keynes and the principles of Polanyi offer insight into crafting a new American economy