Emancipatory economic deglobalisation: a Polanyian perspective

Abstract

The article explores the potential of a Polanyian analysis overcoming the current Manichean opposition between cosmopolitan globalizers and reactionary nationalists. For long, Karl Polanyi has inspired socio-economic thinking in different ways. First, his reflections on the end of the first period of globalization in the 1930s offer insights analysing the current political-economic situation. Furthermore, Polanyi contributes to an institutional analysis and utopian thinking towards a civilization His approach enables a combination of a critique of current neoliberal globalization as a renewed version of the liberal Utopia with a cultural and ecological critique of capitalism as a mode of production and living. In this respect, Karl Polanyi may be contrasted to Friedrich Hayek, both contemporaries of Red Vienna, an ambitious project of local socialism as a step towards a good life all. The social and cultural struggles in Vienna during the 1920s and 1930s offer insights current confrontations worldwide, but especially in Brazil where the reformist attempts of civilizing capitalism where confronted with severe opposition. Instead of the false polarization between globalization and nationalism, policies for the select few are opposed to policies for all. Finally, Polanyi's reflections will be used to shed light onto the current impasse resulting from the illegitimate deposition of president Dilma Rousseff.