Karl Polanyi Research Articles

Comunidad ética, sociedad civil y mercado: esbozos para una crítica a la revolución neoliberal a partir del concepto Kantiano de comunidad ética

The present work takes on the Kantian concept of ethical community as a critical starting point to construct a conception of civil society that can cope with the pretensions of an exaggerated capitalism that has been articulated through the forging of a global self-regulated market. In order to carry out the analysis, classical works in economic anthropology, such as those of Marcel Mauss and Marshal Sahlins, together with Karl Polanyi’s studies on economics, sociology and economics have been taken as additional support and re-evaluated through the perspective of contemporary works on political and social philosophy.

Fictitious Freedom: A Polanyian Critique of the Republican Revival

AbstractProminent republican theorists invoke anonymous orders such as the market as mechanisms that secure freedom as non‐domination. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's account of fictitious commodities and demonstration of the impossibility of a just and rational market society, this article critically scrutinizes neo‐republican assumptions regarding the market, develops an alternate social theory within which to situate the ideal of non‐domination, and illustrates the importance of this reconfiguration for the kind of collective agents and political strategies that can be expected to advance republican freedom in the economy.

The Great Recurrence: Karl Polanyi and the crises of the European Union

AbstractIn his seminal 1944 book The Great Transformation, Polanyi describes the rise and fall of liberal capitalism during the long nineteenth century. Many have realised that Polanyi has a lot to tell about the European Union in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The paper begins with an overview of Polanyi's historiography of the failure of nineteenth‐century liberal capitalism and his account of the four elements that helped liberal capitalism thrive, while precipitating its collapse—the idea of the self‐regulating market, the gold standard, international peace and liberal constitutionalism. Thereafter, the paper describes the particular transformations that these four elements underwent in the course of European integration and after the financial crisis, with a particular focus on the case law of the Court of Justice. The paper argues that their current constellation has a destructive potential that exceeds the economic dimension of the Union and might pave the way for a much greater failure, one that might defeat Europe's greatest success: the establishment of peace. Ultimately, the paper assesses current reform proposals in light of these insights and makes a number of proposals for re‐embedding the economy in society.

Karl Polanyi in an Age of Uncertainty

Karl Polanyi in an Age of Uncertainty

Extended Book Review: Honneth’s social-democratic turn?

Honneth's social-democratic turn? Christopher F. Zurn Axel Honneth: A Critical Theory of the Social, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015; Viii + 257 pp.: ISBN 9780745686806, AUD$30.99 (pbk) Perhaps the most peculiar thing about Zurn's book on Axel Honneth is its cover--the terracotta warriors of China. Neither Zurn, nor Honneth, nor the Frankfurt School, nor critical theory, nor the theory of recognition or 'freedom's right' have the remotest to do with China, warriors, armies, ancient rulers, and terracotta. Nonetheless, Zurn retells Honneth's version of critical theory in minute detail, outlining Honneth's 'struggle for recognition', his diagnosis of social pathologies, recognition and market, as well as social freedom and recognition. With the struggle for recognition, the social-democratic Hegelian Honneth has surely established himself as the main representative of the 'third generation of critical theorists' (p. 1) after Adorno, Horkeimer, Marcuse, and so forth being the first, and Habermas the second. In his brief biography, Zurn notes that Honneth was born in Essen, growing up in the 'bourgeois milieu' of Horst Honneth, his father a 'medical doctor' (p. 2) even though medical doctors are hardly bourgeois--perhaps petit-bourgeois. Essen's unchallenged bourgeoisie remains the staunchly reactionary war mongering, Nazi supporting, and Jewish prison labour using--and abusing--Krupp family. But soon the 1949-born Axel Honneth moved from Essen to nearby Bochum and later to Berlin and Frankfurt to become the 'director of the Institute for Social Research' (p. 3)--critical theory's main institution. Zurn writes that critical theory must also have a practical purpose' (p. 5) even though one might be somewhat hard pressed to find such a 'practical purpose' in, for example, Adorno's (1944) seminal masterpiece 'Minima Moralia'. Beyond that, Zurn notes that Honneth 'has consistently tied his recognition theory to issues of political economy' (p. 9), albeit political economy remains rather marginal in Honneth's recognition work and even more marginal in his Freedom's Right. On the latter, Zurn emphasizes that Freedom's Right is a 'monumental book' attempting nothing less than a contemporary re-actualization of Hegel's 1820 ambitious project, the 'Philosophy of Right' (p. 10). Surely, anyone aiming to measure up to Hegel has set himself a most formidable task. Yet this does not seem to have created an awareness that Hegel--unlike Honneth--was not only aware of the current literature on the political economy of his time but also--again unlike Honneth--critically reflected on it. If Hegel himself would have undertaken such a 're-actualisation (Honneth) himself, he might have included at least some of the political economy literature that occurred since 'Philosophy of Right' (1821) in a book on 'freedom's right'. One author that Hegel would most likely have included in such a project could have been that of one of his prime pupils by the name of Karl Marx and perhaps Karl Polanyi, Keynes, Schumpeter, Immauel Wallerstein, Leo Panitch, Kenneth Galbraith, Barbara Ehrenreich, David Harvey, Joseph Stiglitz, and so forth. But despite Zurn's claims, Honneth's work remains weak on this. Nevertheless, it remains true that 'the most influential single thinker for Honneth is undoubtedly Hegel [as Honneth] follows Hegel's lead rather than Kant' (p. 12). But stating that 'Hegel seeks reason and morality in the space of social interactions between persons' (p. 12) may be overstating Hegel as the latter was at least equally, if not more, interested in reason and morality inside institutions; with the state being among his prime institutions and perhaps corporations being minor institutions (Klikauer 2015a). It beggars belief to claim that 'humans actually come to have an understanding of themselves only in and through social interactions with others' (p. 16). As if this was the 'only' (Zurn) way we understand ourselves, perhaps indirectly also indicating that institutions like kindergarten, schools, universities, the army, the police, and even down to your local taxation office have no impact on how we understand ourselves. …

Karl Marx and Karl Polanyi assumptions on Market economy

Polanyi has long been considered an heir to Marxist thought. Yet despite commonalities between the two, it appears that Polanyi includes in his theories a Christian dimension rejected by Marx and that thus creates points of divergence. In both Polanyi and Marx we find the same conception of as inclusive and dependent on the market. For Marx, is a hostile confrontation between the divergent economic interests of two groups: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the capitalist system. Societal dynamics are centred on the exploitation of the dominated by the dominant. Polanyi is, of course, in accord with Marx's emphasis on these developments, but he questions the prominent position of the latter in his analysis of the social process. Thus, according to Polanyi, Marx does not take sufficient account of the great diversity of non-Western devices for material production, and their links with other important aspects of the social process. For Polanyi, society is a complex reality consisting of relatively autonomous sets of diverse institutional structures, which vary greatly in time and space.

The Great Recurrence - Karl Polanyi and the Crises of the European Union

In his seminal 1944 book “The Great Transformation”, Polanyi describes the rise and fall of liberal capitalism during the long 19th century. Many have realized that Polanyi has a lot to tell about the European Union in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The paper begins with an overview of Polanyi’s historiography of the failure of 19th century liberal capitalism and his account of the four elements that helped liberal capitalism thrive, while precipitating its collapse - the idea of the self-regulating market, the gold standard, international peace, and liberal constitutionalism. Thereafter, the paper describes the particular transformations that these four elements underwent in the course of European integration and after the financial crisis, with a particular focus on the case law of the Court of Justice. The paper argues that their current constellation has a destructive potential that exceeds the economic dimension of the Union and might pave the way for a much greater failure, one that might defeat Europe’s greatest success: the establishment of peace. Ultimately, the paper assesses current reform proposals in light of these insights and makes a number of proposals for re-embedding the economy in society.

The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Puzzle of Bulgaria's Transitional Pessimism

After a decade of economic growth, relative political stability, and a much desired admission to the EU, Bulgarian public opinion remains marked by deep pessimism, life dissatisfaction, and mistrust of others and of public institutions. This negative trend cannot be attributed mostly to mass misperceptions. It can be understood better with reference to Emile Durkheim’s and Karl Polanyi’s analyses of the acute social crisis experienced by many societies undergoing modernization and a transition to a market economy, as well as John Stuart Mill’s emphasis on the need to control excessively aggressive and anti-social individuals under any form of government.

Progressive Responses to Populism: A Polanyian Critique of Liberal Discourse

AbstractThis article explores the recent rise of populist politics from the perspective of Karl Polanyi's theory of the ‘double movement’. It firstly introduces Polanyi's understanding of interwar populism, and relates this to his broader critique of liberal economic thought. This framework is then used to analyse three prominent explanations for populism which emerged in the wake of the UK's 2016 EU referendum: globalisation; cultural reaction; and social media. I show how each of these explanations exogenises contemporary populist movements, narrating them as something external to the liberal economic restructuring pursued globally since the 1980s. Failing to diagnose adequately the causes of contemporary populist movements, which lie in this utopian attempt to treat labour as a commodity, they cannot support an intellectually coherent progressive response to Brexit. Finally, I outline a political agenda centred on labour de‐commodification, which could directly address populist grievances and reclaim the discourse of ‘taking back control’ for the left.

Scaling in Polanyi: reconsidering the local in the age of neoliberalism

There is an increasing interest into Karl Polanyi's framework and method of analysis in under-standing today's problems of neoliberalism as well as in thinking about their solutions. In The Great Trans-formation, his magnum opus written in 1944, Polanyi took nation-states and to some extent the global monetary system as his units of analysis without focusing on local-level issues (be in the form of reasons of problems, or resistances, or alternative creations). Motivated to shed light on this lack of focus, this paper aims at contributing to the efforts of extending and widening his vision to incorporate different scales (lo-cal-national-global) in today's world. The paper first acknowledges and highlights the local as a separate unit in contrast to national and global units; then it unpacks the concept of scale, the way in which the lo-cal-national-global dimensions interact with each other, and the importance of scaling up and down in looking at societal issues. Thereafter, it revisits the Polanyian framework and makes an initial foray to dis-cuss the scale issue, with a focus on the local. It then reconsiders Polanyi's three forms of integration—exchange, reciprocity and redistribution—in an attempt to flesh out the discussion, with some refer-ences to current problematic areas. Finally, it comes up with some policy suggestions and further research areas.

Developing Sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon: Twenty Years of History in the Mamirauá and Amanã Reserves

AbstractThis paper discusses the ability of Sustainable Development Reserves toembed(in Karl Polanyi's sense) the economy into the environment through the development of protocols for the sustainable management of natural resources. Based on two decades of work in the Mamirauá and Amanã Sustainable Development Reserves, we question whether the results are good, fair and viable by comparing two alternatives: unregulated markets and fully protected reserves. We evaluate the interest in sustainability; discuss who benefits and who pays for it; reflect on its potential to reduce inequalities; and discuss its economic and political viability.

An Evaluation of Institutional Matrices Theory Which Was Designed to Illustrate Differences Between Russian and Western Political Economies

:This article is devoted to the evaluation of the institutional matrices theory (IMT), which was designed to illustrate the differences between Russian and Western political economic systems. IMT has no matrix, and it is an ideological declaration rather than a theory. It is a set of assertions and assumptions that are adopted without evidence, and then hypostatized to be Russian and Western socioeconomic systems. IMT literature claims to utilize the reciprocity, redistribution, and exchange model of Karl Polanyi (1944, 1957). However, IMT suffers from a number of assumptive and methodological problems in its application, the first of which consists of the complete exclusion of reciprocity from consideration. The first section of the article is an explanation of problems with IMT, and the second section demonstrates some particulars of the IMT problems with a real-world social fabric matrix from a Western nation.

Institutional Matrices Theory, or X- and Y-Theory: A Response to F. Gregory Hayden

:This article draws attention to issues about the institutional matrices theory (IMT) as perceived by and raised in the article by F. Gregory Hayden. To clarify the “controversial” points, I structure my response narrative along two lines. First, I present the prehistory of IMT, or X- and Y- theory, including earlier work by scientists related to the concept of institutional matrix. I connect the development of the actual IMT with the period of “perestroika” and the associated market experiments and reforms in Russia and Eastern European countries. One could see that the effects of market reforms in Russia were different in comparison with other countries in economic transition. I show that the institutional approach was accepted as more relevant to understanding the unexpected results in Russian society. I present IMT as a development of the ideas of Karl Polanyi and Douglas North to answer the challenges of explaining the real social and economic processes in Russia, as well as its wider application to a broader range of economic and social situations in different countries. Second, I then present the main IMT theses, giving special attention to the issues as perceived and raised by Hayden. In conclusion, I suggest the possibility of a joint project that combines IMT consideration and the social fabric matrix (SFM) concept of F. Gregory Hayden.

KARL POLANYI AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON REGIONAL / LOCAL?

Por muito tempo a ideia do desenvolvimento esteve sempre associada à expansão das formas capitalistas de produção e às suas consequências em termos do progresso técnico e de acumulação de riquezas. Polanyi, para além do economicismo, aqui compreendido com

The economy of excess versus doctrine of quality

A review article devoted to the book of Andrzej Blikle – Doktryna jakości. Rzecz o skutecznym zarządzaniu. As pointed out by the Author, the book is a case of a work rare on the Polish publishing market, written by an outstanding scientist, who successfully runs a business activity. The combination of practical experience with theoretical knowledge gave a result that may be satisfying both for practitioners as well as theorists, and also those who want to get to know the ins and outs of an effective and efficient business management. The Author of the review believes that it is an important voice for shaping an inclusive socio-economic system, which constitutes a value in itself. Although the book is mainly concerned with business management, its message has a much wider dimension and is concerned with real measures of wealth, money and people’s lives. The book was awarded The SGH Collegium of Business Administration Award “For the best scientific work in the field of business administration in the years 2014-2015”.

Finance proud and industry vulnerable: When governments fail to defend the economic realm, citizens revolt

The subordination of society to self‐regulating international markets is the reason why British workers and industries so often fall prey to predatory financiers, writes Ann Pettifor. It is also a fundamental cause of current political crises throughout the west – just as Karl Polanyi described almost 80 years ago.

Resisting neo-liberalism, reclaiming democracy? 21st-century organised labour beyond Polanyi and Streeck

AbstractDespite its greatly weakened condition, could organised labour again be counter-hegemonic to and ultimately transformative of capitalism? Or is the current crisis, a crisis of collapse of manufacturing and wages and under-consumption due to the loss of redistributive power by key socio-political agents, possibly the final crisis of unionism, as argued by Wolfgang Streeck? Some on the political left, such as Streeck, argue that a new phase has been reached where redistributive and oppositional power of organised labour has been not just defeated but destroyed, with enormous consequences for the future of workers and capitalism itself. This article rejects such an overly pessimistic interpretation and asks what the possibility is of the labour movement’s again playing its historic role of transforming capitalism. It explores the potential role of organised labour in re-embedding the economy within democratic society, as Karl Polanyi argued, and building a socio-economic structure that is both stable and enhancing of social and environmental health. This problem is approached through a critique of the theories of Polanyi and Streeck and an examination of the unfortunate embrace of labourism and accommodation to neo-liberalism in the Australian labour movement.

Economic process as institutionalization of values. Karl Polanyi’s institutional theory and its ethical consequences

This article is devoted to a critical reconstruction of Karl Polanyi’s institutional theory and its ethical consequences. Starting with the distinction between the formal (neoclassical) and the substantive (institutional) understanding of the economy, the article proceeds to discuss the main forms of institutional integration of economic life described by Polanyi: reciprocity (symmetry), redistribution (centricity), and exchange (market). In this context, the author examines the connection between the work of Karl Polanyi and the economic anthropology represented by the works of Richard Thurnwald and Bronisław Malinowski. The author argues that three main forms of institutional integration of economic life introduced by Karl Polanyi can be interpreted both as analytical tools to describe institutions and as a grand scheme for the classification of different economic systems. The next section of the article is devoted to a comparison between the institutional theories of Douglass North and Karl Polanyi. For North, the main explanatory category is the idea of transaction costs, whereas for Polanyi the key idea is that of the social embeddedness of the economy. When speaking about the social embeddedness of the economy, Polanyi draws our attention to the inseparable bonds which exist between economic institutions on the one hand, and culture, social structure and politics on the other. This theoretical difference between North and Polanyi, the author argues, has important ethical consequences. If Polanyi is right, then institutions are not only alternative solutions to a certain economic problem (i.e. the efficient allocation of resources, the reduction of transaction costs) but above all they are the embodiment of different conceptions of a good life. In conclusion, the author emphasizes the political dimension of Karl Polanyi’s institutional theory, along with its intriguing promise of liberating our social and political life from the economistic fallacy, that is, from the unfortunate tendency to think about society in market terms.

Producers' cooperation within or against cooperative agricultural institutions? The case of reindeer husbandry in Post-Soviet Russia

With the advance of economic neoliberalization along with the green economy paradigm that aims to alleviate rapid climate change, discussions of the rationale of cooperative organization of food production have come to the fore. This paper contributes to the scholarly understanding of motivations for cooperative organization of production by taking up empirical illustrations from the European North of Russia, where despite expectations of privatization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the cooperative organization of reindeer husbandry often persists, as a heritage of the Soviet state enterprises (sovkhozes). The paper aims at advancing the analysis of cooperative reindeer husbandry and its rationales employing ideas within the field of substantivist economic anthropology of postsocialism that started with Karl Polanyi's vision of the embedded economy (Polanyi, 1944). Further, I have employed the ideas of the renowned study by Caroline Humphrey of Soviet state farms as total social institutions (Humphrey, 1998) as well as Stephen Gudeman's dialectical approach to the economy (Gudeman, 2001). The analysis shows that the cooperative organization of reindeer husbandry reproduces the economic and social patterns that were developed in the Soviet period, perhaps also adapting and incorporating elements of traditional indigenous social orders. Such social arrangements and the accompanying moral values are embedded in the reindeer herding economy, and it is their persistence that indigenous people achieve through adhering to cooperative values.

From supply management to agricultural subsidies—and back again? The U.S. Farm Bill & agrarian (in)viability

Farm subsidies have become increasingly maligned in agricultural policy debates, but the merits of subsidies are a distraction from deeper political, economic, and ecological problems in agriculture. Drawing on a history of the U.S. Farm Bill, this paper argues that a fixation on farm subsidies ignores why they came into being, and more generally glosses over the imperative for modern states to intervene into agricultural economies. Karl Polanyi's 'double movement' framework is used to situate the rise and fall of agricultural supply management within food regime theory. In the second, or surplus food regime, the U.S. government wielded excess commodities as geopolitical tools—even as domestic farm policy labored to contain overproduction, and thus support agrarian viability. In the subsequent corporate food regime, “free market” agriculture displaces and discredits supply management, even as massive government intervention into how food is grown and sold continues. Making space to remember historical price support programs, to situate their accomplishments and limitations, and to recognize residual supply-management mechanisms (such as farm cooperatives and agricultural marketing orders) is crucial for fostering agricultural viability in the US and beyond. Twentieth century supply management had flaws, but it cannot be wholly omitted. This paper highlights key motivations, elements, and contradictions of these policies and programs to begin the process of considering how supply management principles and strategies could be updated and enhanced for 21st century agriculture. Such a framework would need to pay more attention to diversity within domestic and international agricultures, and be more sensitive to the multi-scalar dimensions of food systems.