Karl polanyi embeddedness

Disembedding meaning sociology
Social embeddedness psychology
Embeddedness in economic sociology

•

Since neoliberalism proliferated starting in the late 1980s, the interest in the work of the Austro-Hungarian scholar Karl Polanyi has grown again. His book “The Great Transformation,” published in 1944, discusses the rise of fascism in relation to unleashed market forces. He argued that the dis-embedding of markets from society was in its consequence endangering societal cohesion. An international and interdisciplinary field of scholars revived Polanyi’s thoughts on the conference, applying his theoretical elaborations to current research, effecting historical comparisons and tracing the evolution of his (economic) ideas. A special visitor was KARI POLANYI-LEVITT (Montréal), Prof. em. of Economics and daughter of Karl Polanyi. She remembered in her talks the reception of Polanyi in Austria and, in specific, a conference on Polanyi in Vienna about 20 years ago. In a very personal manner, she recalled how the collapse of societies at the beginning of the 20th century disturbed Polanyi, which led him to seeking explanations for these developments.

GARETH DALE (London), biographer a

•

Karl Polanyi: An Intellectual Biography 0231176082, 9780231176088

Table of contents :
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. In the East-West Salon
2. Bearing the Cross of War
3. Triumph and Tragedy of Red Vienna
4. Challenges and Responses
5. The Cataclysm and Its Origins
6. “Injustices and Inhumanities”
7. The Precariousness of Existence
Epilogue: A Lost World of Socialism
Notes
Index

Citation preview

Karl Polanyi

Karl Polanyi A LIFE ON THE LEFT

GARETH DALE

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK

Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New YorkChichester, West Sussex cup.columbia .edu Copyright © 2016 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dale, Gareth, author. Karl Polanyi : a life on the left / Gareth Dale. pagescm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-17608-8 (cloth : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-0-231-54148-0 (electronic) 1. Polanyi, Karl, 1886–1964.2. Economists—Hungary— Biography.3. Economics—History.I. Title. HB102.P64D3482016 330.15’42092—dc23

•

Embeddedness

Economic concept

In economics and economic sociology, embeddedness refers to the degree to which economic activity is constrained by non-economic institutions. The term was created by economic historian Karl Polanyi as part of his substantivist approach. Polanyi argued that in non-market societies there are no pure economic institutions to which formal economic models can be applied. In these cases economic activities such as "provisioning" are "embedded" in non-economic kinship, religious and political institutions. In market societies, in contrast, economic activities have been rationalized, and economic action is "disembedded" from society and able to follow its own distinctive logic, captured in economic modeling. Polanyi's ideas were widely adopted and discussed in anthropology in what has been called the formalist–substantivist debate.^[1] Subsequently, the term "embeddedness" was further developed by economic sociologist Mark Granovetter, who argued that even in market societies, economic activity is not as disembedded from society as economic mo