"Social Freedom" in the Twenty-First Century

Rereading Polanyi

Bibliographic Data

ID5772723
AuthorsMichele Cangiani (corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume51
Issue4
Pages915-938
Publication date2017-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Economic Issues (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-3624 • E-ISSN: 1946-326X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00213624.2017.1391565
OpenAlexW2784043822
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited30

Karl Polanyi's analysis of the genesis, crises, and institutional transformations of contemporary society is grounded on a theory of the basic features and dynamics of capitalism as a peculiar form of society. This article intends to develop this thesis on the basis of a reading of Polanyi's The Great Transformation, with references to Polanyi's preceding and later research. Polanyi's theoretical and methodological achievements suggest a wide comparative outlook and offer a critique of economics, in addition to being deeply connected with his political philosophy. Polanyi's approach seems to be nearer to the original institutional thought - from Karl Marx to Thorstein Veblen, from Max Weber to Adolf Löwe and Karl William Kapp - than to current neo-institutional tendencies in economics, sociology, and historiography. The hard problems society presently faces suggest the need to adhere to Polanyi's radical point of view - that is, to a radical approach to Polanyi's thought

Capitalism · Economic Thought · Economics · Epistemology · Historiography · Institutional economics · Institutionalism · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Social science · Sociology · Veblen good · Economic Theory and Institutions · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

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