Karl Polanyi's Vision of a Socialist Transformation

by Michael Brie (Editor), Claus Thomasberger (Editor)

Overview

The political and economic turmoil that followed our most recent financial crisis has sparked a huge resurgence of interest in the work of Karl Polanyi (1886—1964), famous anthropologist, economist, and social philosopher. Polanyi's 1944 masterpiece, The Great Transformation, spoke of dangerous increasing dominance of the market and the resulting counter-movements, a prediction that has been borne out by current international grassroots resistance to austerity, alienation, and environmental upheaval of our world.
 
In Karl Polanyi's Vision of a Socialist Transformation, German social and economic philosophers Michael Brie and Claus Thomasberger bring together central figures in in the field—including Gareth Dale, Nancy Fraser, and Kari Polanyi Levitt—to provide an essential anthology on the contemporary importance of Polanyi's thought. This book is centered around Polanyi's ideas on freedom and community in a complex socialist society based on a completely transformed economy. It also includes five 1920s essays by Polanyi recently discovered in the Montreal Polanyi archive and translated into English for the first time, including his lecture “On Freedom”, which is central to his unique understanding of socialism.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551646350
Publisher:	Black Rose Books
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Edition description:	1
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michael Brie is senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Social Analysis of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, in Berlin. Claus Thomasberger is professor of international economic policy and political philosophy at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, in Berlin.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction Michael Brie Claus Thomasberger 5

I Looking Back-Looking Forward

Freedom of Action and Freedom Of Thought Kari Polanyi Levitt 18

II Polanyi's Critique in the Age of Neoliberalism

Freedom, Responsibility and the Recognition of the Reality Of Society Claus Thomasberger 52

Why Two Karls are Better than One: Integrating Polanyi and Marx in a Critical Theory of the Current Crisis Nancy Fraser 67

Revisiting "Freedom in a Complex Society": A View from the Periphery Ayse Bugra 77

Utopianism and the Reality of Society: Decoding Polanyi's Socialism, Freedom, and the Alchemy of Misrecognition Margaret R. Somers 91

"Neoliberal Violence"-an Attempt to Embed Society into the Market Hüseyin Özel 110

III The Case for a Socialist Conception of Freedom

Karl Polanyi and the Paradoxes of Freedom Gareth Dale 126

Knowledge, Freedom and Democracy: Friedrich Hayek and Karl Polanyi on the Market Society and Beyond Paula Valderrama 141

"Knowledge of Society" as the Basis of Karl Polanyi's Demanding Conception of Freedom Michele Cangiani 154

Karl Polanyi and Human Freedom Fred Block 168

Polanyi's Concept of Peace in a Complex Society Chikako Nakayama 185

IV New Ways of Reframing Socialism

Not the New Deal and not the Welfare State: Karl Polanyi's Vision of Socialism Johanna Bockman 200

Planning for Freedom Pat Devine 209

Commoning and the Commons: Alternatives to a Market Society Marguerite Mendell 221

Karl Polanyi and the Discussions on a Renewed Socialism Michael Brie 241

V Essays by Karl Polanyi

Ideologies in Crisis (Weltanschauungskrise) (1919) 264

Science And Morality (1920-22) 268

Being and Thinking (1920-22) 287

The Science of the Future (1920-22) 293

On Freedom (1927) 298

Freedom in a Complex Society (1957) 320

Editorial Reviews

"Brie and Thomasberger have made an important addition to the recent wave of eye-opening work on Karl Polanyi, by building a bridge from Polanyi the critic of market society to Polanyi the theorist of ethical socialism."

From the Publisher

"Brie and Thomasberger have made an important addition to the recent wave of eye-opening work on Karl Polanyi, by building a bridge from Polanyi the critic of market society to Polanyi the theorist of ethical socialism."

author of How Will Capitalism End? Wolfgang Streeck