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This paper develops an analytical framework for the sociological analysis of the clash of economic ideologies. The framework is then used to make sense of the economic debate in South Africa in the 1990s. The argument is that, following Karl Polanyi, we must treat economic life as 'embedded' in social life; that is, economic action is a form of social action. However, the notion of 'embeddedness' must not blind us to the tendency in all economies, especially contemporary market economies,...

This inquiry seeks to establish that the writings of author Karl Polanyi offered insights into key variables and historical conditions that gave rise to the system we know of as “fascism.” Integral to his insights, Polanyi describes economic conditions attendant for fascism to emerge, with one condition noted as widespread and persistent unemployment. Polanyi stresses that fascism needs to be understood as reactionary, a responding to features integral to classical liberalism. Considering a...

This article reconstructs Karl Polanyi’s account of fascism’s rise in his 1935 article, “The Essence of Fascism.” Following the elevation of Hitler to power in 1933, Polanyi embarked on a reassessment of Nietzsche, Othmar Spann, Spengler, Evola, and other figures of the interwar conservative revolution. He argues that the fascist quest for national unity emerges when 19th century liberalism fails to address the growing atomization and economic dislocation of modern society. On the one hand,...

Digital capitalism’s information infrastructure is the subject of contentious debates concerning its transformative effects on the political economy and society. A frequent proposition, referring to older arguments of the ‘socialist calculation debate’, is that with big data analytics the pro-market arguments of neoliberal economists such as Hayek or Mises become obsolete. This article critically examines this proposition by drawing on Karl Polanyi’s notion of overview; a core theme in his...

This article applies Karl Polanyi’s concept of a double movement to the trajectory of rural state policies in China since 1949. It argues that Chinese socialism created a contradictory social contract that has fueled an ongoing struggle between state and peasantry over the surplus generated from rural land. This struggle has shaped a historical oscillation between state policies that facilitate extraction of agricultural surpluses and policies that introduce social protections in the form of...

The mandate of the European Central Bank (ECB) does not extend to labor market and social policies at the national level. Why, despite the reputational costs, did the ECB act as a staunch advocate of structural labor market reforms from 1999 through 2015? We discuss this question through the theoretical lens of Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation. Although Polanyi has been a key reference point for the debate on the social consequences of European economic and monetary integration, one...

The causes and consequences of revolutionary change have long been the subject of scholarly debate. Through a systematic integration of political economic elements into an analysis of contemporary social transformations, this article joins this conversation by asking how Karl Polanyi’s double movement framework can clarify, and be extended by, the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. By embedding a nuanced account of neoliberalism in Egypt’s modern politics and by bringing those in dialogue with...

This article advances Rodrik's political trilemma of the world economy by using insights from Polanyi’s The Great Transformation, which helps to grasp the interwoven dynamics of long-term transformations due to climate change and geopolitical reordering on one hand, and on the other short-term political ruptures due to countermovements. Rodrik's globalization trilemma shows the incompatibility of hyperglobalization with the need for an enlarged democratic policy space. Its nodes...

Karl Polanyi’s double movement is a key tool for conceptualising free market fatigue in African business communities wrought by the insecurities of trade liberalisation. Synthesising Polanyi with Kwame Nkrumah’s work on neo-colonialism, the article argues that exhausted business communities in Africa can contest free market reforms and push for a return to developmentalist strategies, underscoring a double movement. In this discussion it highlights Ghana, a ‘donor darling’ in terms of...

In this article we argue that reinvigorating socialist politics requires championing a socialist worldview that goes beyond the critique of capitalism. Neglecting such an outlook leaves socialism tethered to the fortunes of capitalism and inhibits a broader account of its own virtues. We begin by explaining why worldview thinking is appropriate today. Then we examine two underappreciated works by Karl Polanyi (his 1927 lecture “On Freedom”) and Charles Taylor (his 1974 essay “Socialism and...

This article discusses digitalization and its connection with the political economy of transformation. Its point of departure is Karl Polanyi's historical analysis as presented in The Great Transformation. Polanyi analyzed the development of “self-regulating” markets—with transformative and destructive consequences for individuals, nature, and society—and government efforts to contain these consequences. Polanyi's perspective is compared to Marx's theorem of the development of productive...

In this paper, I present an analysis of those aspects of Karl Polanyi's social and political thought that relate to environmentalism and 'green' politics today. I discuss whether or not he prefigured the degrowth movement, before focusing on his understanding of the New Deal (1933-1939). At the time of writing, the prospect appears likely of a return, at a global scale, of economic slump, mass unemployment and ecological crisis, the background conditions to which Franklin D. Roosevelt's New...

Karl Polanyi provides a rich repertoire of concepts to build a critical understanding of the world of globalization and alternatives to the status quo. In reviewing two recent collections around the work of Polanyi, we show some of the concepts that might be developed in terms of ‘using Polanyi’. This would include his inspired double-movement concept and the way he dealt with non-capitalist societies. Polanyi is as relevant for the so-called developing societies as he is for the advanced...

Happiness economics unearths the undesirable effects of economic growth and criticizes the economic model based on the belief in the supremacy of market relations over the relational bonds of society. Economic growth brings about substantial increases in material well-being; yet, it has the potential to destroy the social and environmental fabric of society. This is visible in the post-World War II cross-country variability of the subjective well-being measures, which shows the importance of...

Resumo Uma introdução à entrevista realizada com Gareth Dale (Brunel University) − economista político e especialista na trajetória e na obra de Karl Polanyi − e a um conjunto de textos inspirados na abordagem polanyiana publicados neste número de S&A. Recupera questões-chave apresentadas na entrevista e na obra de Dale, dando relevo à literatura recente produzida sobre o autor, à contínua e difundida relevância das ideias de Polanyi para a compreensão do capitalismo e da democracia, e a uma...

Neoliberalism has been able to change the markets and the economy of societies around the world. These transformations are especially important with regards to fictitious commodities: land, labor, and money. However, the 2020 pandemic imposes new limits, when life itself is at risk globally. This work highlights the major neoliberal reforms relating to fictitious commodities, the difficulties of society to resist and create counterweights. The health crisis that has emerged with the COVID-19...

Karl Polanyi’s The great transformation emphasized the importance of non-market institutions for social equity and stability. In that same era, Friedrich Hayek postulated in The road to serfdom that superior economies were market-based and featured minimal government. I compare these worldviews in relation to property and violent crime. Using US county data, change in crime is modeled as a function of economic structure, economic conditions, and demographics. Consistent with Polanyi, the...

This paper assesses the contribution of Karl Polanyi, a theorist largely ignored in fascism scholarship, toward understanding fascism’s interwar rise and present-day implications. In exploring Polanyi’s work in The Great Transformation and lesser-known and unpublished writings, a sophisticated and largely original conception of fascism emerges, rooted in the idea of ‘anti-individualism’ as its foundational trait. Polanyi accounts for fascism’s philosophical content, ideological plasticity,...

Karl Polanyi’s scholarship is interpreted in radically different ways. The “hard” reading of Polanyi sees him as a radical socialist; the “soft” reading presents him as a theorist of mixed economy. This article sides with the soft interpretation. It uses Polanyi’s biography to explain his theoretical “elusiveness,” presents a novel interpretation of his three types of economic integration, claiming all economies are “mixed.” While it acknowledges Polanyi as one of the major sources of world...