Polanyi : Classical Moral Economist or Pioneer Cultural Political Economist?

Jessop, B. and Sum, N.-L. (2019) Polanyi : Classical Moral Economist or Pioneer Cultural Political Economist? Osterreichische Zeitschrift fur Soziologie, 44 (2). pp. 153-167. ISSN 1011-0070

Abstract

This article evaluates Polanyi’s work from two complementary theoretical perspectives: moral economy and cultural political economy. Polanyi’s comparative historical analyses of substantive economies, their modes of distribution and the bases for their respective kinds of relative unity and stability, the rise of the market economy in and through its disembedding from more encompassing social relations, the social bases and motives for resistance to this disembedding, and its subsequent re-embedding in a market society are major theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of moral economies. Polanyi’s work can also be explored for insights that anticipate the emerging post-disciplinary approach of cultural political economy, which combines critical semiotic analysis and the critique of political economy. More importantly, cultural political economy provides new theoretical and methodological tools for elaborating Polanyi’s brilliant insights into moral economy. © 2019, The Author(s).