IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mes/jeciss/v45y2011i1p177-198.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Karl Polanyi's Institutional Theory: Market Society and Its "Disembedded" Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Cangiani

Abstract

A fundamental principle of Karl Polanyi's institutional outlook is that any economic system has to be considered as a whole and as a historically specific social organization. This principle implies a comparative method and a critique of conventional economics. Besides, the problem of the interrelation between the economic system and other aspects of social life cannot be avoided. On this basis, Polanyi points out the peculiar "economic" nature of the market-capitalist society and explains the institutional transformations characterizing its history. The opposition "embedded/disembedded," used by Polanyi to distinguish pre-modern economies from the market economy, has been widely adopted in recent times, particularly by economic sociologists, as a key for understanding current complex economic phenomena. However, the reference to Polanyi often presupposes a distorted interpretation of his theory, and a different kind of institutional approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Cangiani, 2011. "Karl Polanyi's Institutional Theory: Market Society and Its "Disembedded" Economy," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 177-198.
    • Handle: RePEc:mes:jeciss:v:45:y:2011:i:1:p:177-198
    DOI: 10.2753/JEI0021-3624450110
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2753/JEI0021-3624450110
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2753/JEI0021-3624450110?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Geoff Goodwin, 2022. "Double Movements and Disembedded Economies: A Response to Richard Sandbrook," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(3), pages 676-702, May.
    2. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2021. "Making markets just: Reciprocity violations as key intervention points," ZOE Discussion Papers 7, ZOE. institute for future-fit economies, Bonn.
    3. Geoff Goodwin, 2024. "Uneven decommodification geographies: Exploring variation across the centre and periphery," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 883-904, May.
    4. Jamie Peck, 2013. "For Polanyian Economic Geographies," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(7), pages 1545-1568, July.
    5. Goodwin, Geoff, 2022. "Double movements and disembedded economies: a response to Richard Sandbrook," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113686, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Giana M. Eckhardt & Fleura Bardhi, 2016. "The Relationship between Access Practices and Economic Systems," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(2), pages 210-225.
    7. Theresa Hager & Ines Heck & Johanna Rath, 2021. "Competition in Transitional Processes: Polanyi and Schumpeter," ICAE Working Papers 128, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mes:jeciss:v:45:y:2011:i:1:p:177-198. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/MJEI20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.