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This article proceeds from the field of tension between the synchronical approach of the economics of convention and the diachronical approach of economic anthropology (in the tradition of Karl Polanyi). It is argued that the economics of convention remain problematic to historians in that they fail to capture the long term transformations traditionally referred to as the emergence of modernity and the coming about of homo economicus. As a possible solution, the use of concepts and insights...

This paper proposes an analytical framework using the regulation approach and consisting of explanations of some concepts and a simple way of modeling; the concepts and modeling are developed by focusing on the distributive aspect of environmental issues and using environmental costs as key indices. As a basis for the framework, we refer to the ideas of Polanyi and the surplus approach, and we recognize the socio-economic system as interlinked triple reproductions of the economy, humans, and...

A literary criticism of the book "Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science," by Mary Jo Nye is presented. The author discusses the significance of Michael Polanyi in the history of science studies and provides insight on his life and his relationship with his brother Karl. He analyzes how the book presents the origins of science studies, Polanyi’s activities as an economist, and his fight against Communism.

This article explores the interrelation of gentrification and public policies in the neighbourhoods of Prenzlauer Berg (Berlin) and Harlem (New York City). It draws on Karl Polanyi’s concept of a ‘double movement’ and argues that gentrification is fundamentally a political process. Thus, while demise in the face of market forces, or even an active support of gentrification, is clearly visible in both neighbourhoods, the relation between public policies and gentrification is also highly...

Severe addictions to drug use and to countless other habits are causing enormous harm around the globe. Massive expenditures and dedicated efforts of police, doctors, addiction therapists, and self-help groups have failed to bring the problem under control, although many individual addicts have been helped. What can society do when our best efforts continue to fail and a menacing problem continues to grow? This paper proposes that a major paradigm shift is required. The currently dominant...

Karl Polanyi’s theory of the ‘double movement’ has gained great currency in recent years to explain the global growth of contemporary social movements resisting neoliberalism. However, there has been no statistical research demonstrating whether these protest movements represent a more general trend of growing discontent with ‘disembedding’ markets from public control. This article uses questions from the World Values Survey to construct an ‘embeddedness’ index measuring public opinion on...

This article investigates China's market reforms and rapid economic development from the late 1970s. The following questions are posed: (1) How did the Chinese 'peasant revolution' and the rural policies and institutions of Mao China influence the market reforms and subsequent economic development? (2) How does China's development after the market reforms relate to Marxist and Polanyian notions of proletarization and commodification of land and labour as preconditions of capitalist...

Sociologists have paid scant attention to the possibility that the structure of the macro-economy is an important determinant of income inequality. Although prior research finds negative links between the size of the public sector and income inequality, no study to date considers whether the size of consumer markets has distributional consequences as well. To investigate this possibility, the present study measures the size of national consumer markets with the System of National Accounts...

This paper argues that the relationship between law and politics must be reconfigured within the European Union. Dissecting recent crises in economic, social and political organisation within Europe with reference to the three ‘fictitious’ commodities of Karl Polanyi, we find that law in Europe has contributed to de-legalisation, de-socialisation and disenfranchisement. Moving on to review the potential for law to respond to crisis through new paradigms of conflict resolution as suggested by...

Free-market reforms in the last quarter of the twentieth century weakened the point of production—labor unions—as the source of effective nonparty political countermovement to liberal capitalism. Has another significant source of societal resistance arisen in association with the resurgence of market economics? Building on the work of Karl Polanyi, this article argues that circuits of exchange—the commodification of labor, land, and money—can be powerful sources of movement against...

This essay discusses the intellectual contributions of five Jewish émigrés to the study of European economic history. In the midst of the war years, these intellectuals reconceptualized premodern European economic history and established the predominant postwar paradigms. The émigrés form three distinct groups defined by Jewish identity and by professional identity. The first two (Guido Kisch and Toni Oelsner) identified as Jews and worked as Jewish historians. The second two (Michal Postan...

This article applies Karl Polanyi's observation of a double movement of law in the history of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe to an analysis of Bali's integration into the global cultural economy. It describes how the increasing disembedding of the island's tourist industry from local norms and institutions, and the parallel disjuncture between Balinese religiosity and Indonesian state religion have created a condition of increasing collective anomie that has in turn provoked...

Solidarity economy (SE) initiatives constitute a worldwide phenomenon that is today at the heart of numerous economic and social debates. They are active in very diverse economic sectors, aiming for example to create employment for poor and low-qualified workers. We begin with presenting a Polanyian framework for the analysis of such economic activities, which enables us to develop a plural and integral conception of a productive organisation. We draw on Polanyi's thesis that economy is a...

The three books under review in this article all demonstrate the beginnings of a shift in the tone of literature on or derived from the work of Karl Polanyi. On one hand, the authors all show a willingness to admit a variety of problems and weaknesses in his work. But on the other hand, it is precisely this degree of critical introspection that enables the authors under review to identify some of the most important and contemporarily relevant aspects of Polanyi's thought. In the two main...

The purpose of this paper is to seek to apply Polanyi's theory of the double movement as a response to the effects of economic liberalization and globalization to the pre‐2007 American economy. In so doing, it seeks to ascertain the reasons why this assumed double movement did not materialize until after the post‐2007 global economic crisis. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is structured as a theoretical and historical analysis, building upon Polanyi's nineteenth century...

The article reviews the book "Karl Polanyi: The Limits of the Market," by Gareth Dale.

The global subprime mortgage crisis in 2007–2008 led to an economic recession in Singapore, but the economy recovered strongly to post a 14.5% expansion in 2010. This article examines how labour market repositioning policies contributed to this recovery. Following Karl Polanyi's conceptualization of the economy as an ‘instituted process’, I explore how these policies function as state-driven redistributive strategies aimed at triggering reciprocal responses from employers and workers within...

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...

This article provides foundations to K. Polanyi's famed argument that monopoly power in the global capital market served as an instrument of peace during the Pax Britannica (1815-1914). We focus on the role of intermediaries and certification. We show that when information and enforcement are imperfect, there is scope for the endogenous emergence of 'prestigious' intermediaries who enjoy a monopoly position and as a result, control government actions. They can implement conditional lending:...

The world economic crisis should be seen as an episode in the history of money. “National capitalism” was the main way of organizing money in the twentieth century and its symbol was national monopoly currency. This system has been unravelling since the US dollar de-pegged from gold in 1971. The result is a disconnect between politics which are still largely national and the money circuit which is decentralized and global. The work of Georg Simmel and Karl Polanyi is enrolled to explain this...