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The  rise  of  the  Social  Forum  phenomenon  has  been  heartily  welcomed,  partly  so  as to unite diverse discourses of anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist resistance under a common  banner.  There  are  debates  worth  flagging,  however,  that  draw  our  attention to  political  philosophies  (typically  binary  statist  versus  anti-statist  disputes),  visions of agency (typically networked movements versus parties), and potentials for revolutionary processes to emerge within...

Recent globalization theory reflected a chain of world historical events since the end of the Cold War. Globalization theories were tools for the making of political alliances between market liberals and political, liberals. From the mid-1990s a broad range of institutionalist social science programs showed that globalization outcomes were often better explained by institutional logics (including cultural ones) than by global flows per se. This is, among others, illustrated by the debate on...

The article analyzes the global economy by subjecting it to an interpretive scheme derived from popular culture Boganism, an Australian colloquialism or street slang used by teenagers. Boganism, the social phenomenon of being both unaware and irresponsible, is the result of a particular type of human abandonment. This abandonment is linked to the new hypercapitalism of globalization. The article will establish the structural roots of boganism, examine the case of the abandonment of U.S....

A one-dimensional view of capitalism inevitably leads to the conclusion that labour is in a state of deep crisis. However, if we examine globalization as a contradictory process, then it is possible to regard its relationship with labour as a transformative one. In this context, the decline of trade union density in developed countries and the rise of new forms of trade unionism in selected countries of the South, illustrate the contradictory relationship between labour and capital. In...

This text was the original second chapter of the author's doctoral dissertation (Escobar 1987); this chapter was never included in the book that eventually grew from the dissertation (Escobar 1995). Although the chapter's contribution to debates on the economy are largely synthetic and certainly not original, the author wanted to publish it for a number of reasons. First, the alleged triumph of neo-liberal ideologies and the increase in depth and scope of market cultures at present make even...

This paper brings together data from 17 OECD countries on scientific publications, patents and production, to explore the relationship between scientific and economic specialisation for 17 manufacturing industries. Since Marx, there has been a fundamental debate in economics about the link between science and the economic system. Marx argued that the needs of production shape scientific developments and that science has become a factor of production, whereas Polanyi argued that developments...

Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religion in the world today. A number of explanatory theories exist, but in this paper, I hone in on the nexus between economic restructuring and Pentecostalism to explore this extraordinary expansion. Bringing together the work of feminist political economists and of Karl Polanyi, I argue that neo-liberal globalization threatens mechanisms for meeting social reproductive needs. Neo-liberalism cannot meet these needs on its own, and I suggest that...

This article illustrates the continuing salience of Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation (1944) by employing two of its central concepts, fictitious commodities and the double movement to interpret the globalisation countermovement and one of its most important figures, José Bové. I explain the transformation of José Bové from rural sheep farmer to French folk hero and global activist and analyse the extent to which his rhetoric and political actions are congruent with Polanyi's key...

This paper is based on the idea that between the 1920s and the mid-1930s in Vienna there were two forms of heterodox economic theory: the Austrian economic school headed by Ludwig von Mises and another interesting form of heterodox economics opposed to the Austrian school (above all politically) and pursued by various social thinkers (Otto Neurath, Karl Polanyi, Otto Bauer, Felix Schaffer, Felix Weil, Jacob Marschak). They were engaged in the debate on the possibilities of a planned economy:...

The rise and fall of the New Middle East (NME) cannot be separated from wider global developments and must therefore be studied in relation to them, in both their ideational and material aspects. The ideological background of the NME has drawn upon the ideology of globalization and shares its underlying tenets of rationality, professionalism and virtues of market economy. In the early 1990s a discourse of globalization was set in motion, highlighting economic and technological development...

We extend Karl Polanyi's traditional economy concept to modern economies with advanced technology that are embedded in a traditional socio-cultural framework. This is the New Traditional economy, seen in parts of the Islamic world and with the Hindu nationalist movement in India. However, rural India is also the largest repository of the Old Traditional economy with its Hindu caste and jajmani system of reciprocal labour relations. The changes in India's complexly mixed economy, with its...

This article examines the movement ATTAC and assesses its potential to function as a vital part of the emerging global opposition to neoliberal globalization. We analyze the agenda of the movement and assess its coherence, both in terms of policy evaluations and prescriptions and in terms of the fit of the movement's organizational structure with its substantive mission and official aims. To this end, we explain the emergence and stellar rise of the movement, compare the particularly...

The research in this paper explores the institutional changes in the housing system during the period of market transition in Bulgaria, which follow suit with the greater societal transformations. The societal changes are linked theoretically with Polanyi's understanding of the transition from a non-market to a market society. His argument helps in establishing the institutional context of the macroeconomic changes in the past decade. The article then focuses on the changing sources of...

Examines an earlier period of oscillation between state intervention and market liberalization in the meat trades of Paris, France New York City, and Mexico City, Mexico. Explanation on market culture; Argument of economic historian Karl Polanyi on the modern capitalist system and market rationality; Discussion on the rules governing the relationship between civil society and state power in the meat trade.

Recent changes in fisheries regulation in the U.S. North Pacific reveal how neoliberalism is constituted in practice, and the forms that neoliberalism takes when it engages with environmental management and ecological processes. Whereas neoliberalism can be taken as a political economic philosophy that posits that markets, without state involvement, can best allocate resources, the history and practice of neoliberalism show that it is not as unified as it often appears. Analysis of...

This article outlines what the Polanyi problem consists of and provides information on some of the implications that arise in developing a Gramscian/Polanyian strategy of counter-hegemony for the labor and the modern social movements, as of August 2004. Labor and new social movements are allegedly an integral element for a progressive solution of the so-called Polanyi problem, which is how the tendency towards the creation of a global free-market economy can be reconciled with a degree of...

Karl Polanyi's analysis in The Great Transformation has played a prominent role in shaping our understanding of the nature and outcome of both globalization and the movements that have emerged to resist it. However, this article argues that Polanyi's account of the rise and demise of Europe's 19th-century market system is, in important respects, incomplete and misleading. Its central concern is Polanyi's neglect of class structures and processes and how this leads him to mischaracterize both...

The article review three books about the role of the state in promoting development. It includes "Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies," by Robert Bates, "Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation," by Peter Evans and "The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time," by Karl Polanyi.

Ideology is always for something. Who thought neoliberalism was any different? The post-Cold War provides an excellent laboratory in which to observe 20th c. civilization crumbling, even as it marches towards world markets unbounded by law or social principles. Through repetition and rhetorical sleight-of-hand, the market has robbed the state and thus the polis of its agency. Thus, Schroeder’s SPD is contemplating yet another retreat from the social democratic model, in favor of the...

In the wake of frank neo-liberalism, and in the context of rising security fears, ways are being found to provide market liberalism with a more inclusive face. The Poverty Reduction Strategies currently prominent in international development, and Thirdway OECD 'Social Inclusion' policy frames claim common purpose to promote 'opportunity, empowerment and security' for people and places on the peripheries of global economies and societies. They share commitments to global economic integration...