Societies and markets: the challenge of unsustainable development

In this chapter, the author discusses an interpretative framework inspired by Polanyi’s concepts of embeddedness, the double movement and the role of reciprocity, redistribution and market cooperation as the basic logics of social integration. This contribution points towards a theoretical frame that is historicized and capable of incorporating global interconnections. This theoretical frame designs a paradigm of unsustainable development, where unsustainability represents tensions that activate a continuous turbulent process of transformation and socio-political actions to respond to these tensions. Unsustainability points to the dynamic of change of market societies as commodification generates a continuous process of transformation of economic, social and political institutions. Emancipation from traditional forms of oppression no longer compensate the difficulties created by the process of commodification in terms of inequalities, ecological destruction and financial crisis. In the conclusion, the author suggests some initial reflections on the impact of the present global pandemic crisis.