437 - Section on Economic Sociology Invited Session. The Great Transformation (1944) Turns Seventy: Looking Backward and Looking Forward

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

It is now 70 years since the publication of Karl Polanyi's greatest work, The Great Transformation. In a new age of crisis, we have fresh impetus to revisit his arguments on markets, politics, and community; the causes of civilizational crises; and their possible resolutions. Toward this end, this session brings accomplished Polanyian scholars together with Polanyians in-the-making. Panelists will discuss the application of Polanyi's central themes and concepts--the liberal creed, free market utopia, the self-regulating market, fictitious commodities, embeddedness, the double movement--to the analysis of historical processes, present-day developments, and possible futures.

Sub Unit

• Section Invited

Session Organizer

• Stephanie Lee Mudge, University of California-Davis

Presider

• Fred Block, University of California-Davis

Individual Presentations

• From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization - Kari Polanyi Levitt, McGill University

• The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polanyi's Critique - Margaret R. Somers, University of Michigan; Fred Block, University of California-Davis

• The Great Japanese Transformation: Submerged Commerce, Mercantilism and the Transition to Capitalism - Mark Cohen, New York University

• The Politics of Market Destruction: Fields, Courts, and the Survival of Sao Paulo's Street Vendors - Jacinto Cuvi, University of Texas-Austin