WHAT DOES KARL POLANYI OFFER TO ECONOMIC THEORY

This article provides a critical overview of the theoretical perspective developed by Karl Polanyi, in particular his 1944 book The Great Transformation. What does this approach offer to economic theory, especially heterodox economic theory? Three elements vital to his work are in focus: (1) “embeddedness” of the market in society, (2) fictitious commodities (labor, nature and money) and (3) the “double movement”, i.e. the political imposition of the self-regulating market and the protective reaction of society. The springboard for this article is a survey of American economists, in which they were asked if they had read Polanyi’s work.