Requirements for Transformative Change: Contributions from Karl Polanyi

Abstract

A key question that emerges from the coronavirus pandemic is what is required to make of this temporary phase a pathway to transformative change. Or, as largely happened following the 2008 financial crisis, will society return to a carbon-heavy, growth-dominated economy based on an ethic of radical individualism and rampant consumerism, informed by neoliberal prescriptions. This article draws on the work of Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) to offer an alternative theoretical framework to guide transformative social change in the era of climate change. It begins by identifying a key feature of the structure-agency balance in contemporary society, namely a techno-optimism and the case made for an alternative framing through the lens of political economy. The second section identifies the two key theoretical frames which informed the dominant political economy configurations since the second World War – a social democratic frame and a neoliberal frame. The argument is made that a new frame is now necessary. The third and longest section draws a range of conceptual contributions from Polanyi to offer a distinctively different theory to that offered by neoliberalism. These include market society; different meanings of economy; fictitious commodities; forms of integration; double movement; discovery of society; the human person and freedom; and the power of technology. The final section draws conclusions.