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Men and Things: Karl Polanyi, Primitive Accumulation, and Their Relevance to a Radical Green Political Economy

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  • Scott Prudham

    (Department of Geography, School of the Environment, University of Toronto, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada)

Abstract

Now is an important moment to be thinking and talking about a critical and normative green political economy. Whether via attempts to develop effective and socially just climate policies at multiple scales of governance [including REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) schemes], or to develop proliferating and controversial neoliberal instruments for dealing with undesirable environmental change, environmental governance, and environmental change in the context of contemporary global capitalism are on the agenda. What would a critical and normative green political economy for the current moment look like? This paper draws on Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation as a resource for answering that question. In particular, Polanyi's discussion of problematic and dualistic notions of nature and society in early political economy and the role he accords social struggles over land in developing his theory of fictitious commodities, embeddedness and the double movement are revisited. The paper stresses how Polanyi's ideas, at once conceptual and polemical, draw centrally on Marx's theorization of primitive accumulation as an inherent, ‘extra-economic’ facet of historical—geographical capitalism, a differentiated unity linking the commodification and objectification of human and nonhuman natures as exchange-values. In this respect, Polanyi offers (or seems to offer) a potential reconciliation of a politics of nonhuman and human nature through his emphasis on primitive accumulation as a site of both political struggle and epistemic transformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Prudham, 2013. "Men and Things: Karl Polanyi, Primitive Accumulation, and Their Relevance to a Radical Green Political Economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(7), pages 1569-1587, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:45:y:2013:i:7:p:1569-1587
    DOI: 10.1068/a45303
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Anitra Baliga, 2024. "Chasing land, chasing crisis: Interrogating speculative urban development through developers’ pursuit of land commodification in Mumbai," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(2), pages 349-366, March.
    2. Damien Cahill, 2020. "Market analysis beyond market fetishism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(1), pages 27-45, February.
    3. Jamie Peck, 2013. "Disembedding Polanyi: Exploring Polanyian Economic Geographies," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(7), pages 1536-1544, July.
    4. Christopher M. Dent, 2022. "Neoliberal Environmentalism, Climate Interventionism and the Trade-Climate Nexus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-26, November.
    5. James McCarthy, 2015. "A socioecological fix to capitalist crisis and climate change? The possibilities and limits of renewable energy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(12), pages 2485-2502, December.
    6. Florence Palpacuer & Clara Roussey, 2024. "Entangling global chains of wealth and value through CSR-ization: A critical Polanyian perspective on Weda Bay Nickel," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(8), pages 2232-2248, November.
    7. Hannah Stokes-Ramos, 2023. "Rethinking Polanyi's double movement through participatory justice: Land use planning in Puerto Rico," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(8), pages 1970-1988, November.
    8. Clausen, Laura Tolnov & Rudolph, David, 2020. "Renewable energy for sustainable rural development: Synergies and mismatches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

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