Reading Karl Polanyi for the Twenty-First Century: Market Economy as a Political Project

by A. Bugra, K. Agartan

Overview

Using Karl Polanyi's analysis of the separation of politics and the economy, the book argues that the market economy is not a spontaneous process, but a 'political project' realized through institutional change where labour, land, money, and currently knowledge are commodities. The contributions explore the impact of this commodification process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349539482
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	10/17/2007
Edition description:	1st ed. 2007
Pages:	267
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

AYSE BUGRA completed her Ph.D. in economics at McGill University, UK. She is currently a professor at Ataturk Institute of Modern Turkish History and the founding director of the research center 'Social Policy Forum' at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her fields of specialization are History and Methodology of Economics, Development Economics, and Comparative Social Policy. Her publications include On Economics and Human Behavior (in Turkish, 1989, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2005), State and Business in Modern Turkey: A Comparative Study (1994), State, Market and Organizational Form (co-edited with Behlül Üsdiken, Walter de Gruyter, 1997), and Islam in Economic Organizations (1999). She has published articles in different edited collections and in such journals as South Atlantic Quarterly, Economics and Philosophy, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Technological Change and Social Forecasting, Current Anthropology, Review of Radical Political Economy, MAUSS. She translated The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi into Turkish (1986, 2000, 2003, 2005).

KAAN AGARTAN is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, USA, and currently a research fellow at the research center 'Social Policy Forum' at Bogazici University, Istanbul.

Table of Contents

Introduction; A.Bugra PART I: REFLECTIONS ON DISEMBEDDEDNESS: WELFARE STATE AND BEYOND Suppressing the Double Movement to Secure the Dictatorship of Finance; M.Bienefeld The 1970's and After: The Political Economy of Inflation and the Crisis of Social Democracy; P.Devine The Slight Transformation - Contesting the Legacy of Karl Polanyi-; H. Lacher PART II: COMMODITY FICTION IN CONTEMPORARY MARKET ECONOMIES: WORK TODAY Labor Re-Commodification in the New Transformation; G.Standing The Right to Work, Way of Social Exclusion? Basic Income as a Guarantee to the Right to Work; J.L.Rey Pérez PART III: COMMODITY FICTION IN CONTEMPORARY MARKET ECONOMIES: KNOWLEDGE TODAY Knowledge as a Fictitious Commodity: Insights and Limits of a Polanyian Perspective; B.Jessop Commodification of Science in a Neoliberal World; G.Irzik Intellectual Property: Commodification and Its Discontents; V.Brown-Keyder PART IV: PATTERNS OF RESISTANCE AND ADAPTATION Polanyi's Concept of Double Movement And Politics in the Contemporary Market Society; A.Bugra Reforming East Asian Labor Systems: China, Korea, and Thailand; F.C. Deyo & K.Agartan The Strong Embrace of Weak Actors: Explaining Social Support for Economic Liberalization Through the Case Study of SMEs in the EU; K.Young Corporate Social Responsibility and Market Society: Credit and Banking Inclusion in Brazil; M.Alejandra Madi Caporale & J.R. Barbosa Gonçalves

Editorial Reviews

"Fruitfully peering into the 'knowledge economy,' intellectual property rights, and the scientific revolution, Bugra and Agartan's book refines Karl Polanyi's framework. The authors venture into issues beyond Polanyi's compass. This critical engagement with his analysis of 'free markets' and moral well-being yields fresh insights into transformative forces today."

- James H. Mittelman, University Professor of International Affairs, American University

From the Publisher