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Reinstituting the Economic Process: (Re)embedding the Economy in Society and Nature
Abstract
Polanyi argued that the project of creating a fully self-regulating market was utopian, in the sense of impossible. However, movement towards this utopia, the ever greater but never completed process of disembedding the economy from both society and nature, creates growing dislocations and tensions which call forth a counter movement. This double movement may be thought of as successive changes in the way in which the economic process is instituted. The focus of the paper is on the meaning of embeddedness, the ways in which the economy was reinstituted during the Great Transformation and the subsequent counter movements, and alternative approaches to further reinstituting the economy in ways that disembed it further or (re)embed it more firmly in society and nature. It is argued that prior to the creation of the capitalist market the economy was organically embedded in society and nature. However, the creation of separate economic institutions, the institution of the economic process as a distinct system with its own laws of motion, severed these organic links and the economy came to dominate both society and nature. Here, however, the symmetry between society and nature ends. Society has the capacity for conscious, purposeful action; nature does not. For the economy to be reinstituted in ways that create a sustainable organic relationship with nature, it must first be reinstituted in ways that bring it under social control.
... Several authors (Gray 1998;Adaman, Devine et al. 2003;Munck 2004) borrow from Polanyi to highlight that global 'laissez-faire was planned'. Jessop (2001, 203) utilises Polanyi's analysis of the market society to theorise 'capitalist societalization' -the process whereby market forces and the logic of capitalist accumulation become established as the ideologically and politically dominant principle of society through the extension of commodification and the distortion of noncommercial domains. ...
... And while Stiglitz (2001, ix) recognises that 'only diehards would argue for the self-regulating market', he nonetheless concedes that ideology and special interests continue to be disguised and prescribed as economic science and good policy. Polanyi (2001) and a number of later theorists (Gray 1998;Munck 2002;Adaman, Devine et al. 2003;Udayarigi and Walton 2003;De Sousa Santos 2006;Munck 2006) have argued that society will inevitably protect itself against the perils of the free-market. Here it is crucial to remember that according to Polanyi (2001, 3-4), society would take measures to protect itself by means of re-embedding the market into society. ...
... Gray (1998, 17) further argues that the free market and true democracy cannot coexist since the social costs of the former are such that it 'cannot for long be legitimate in any democracy'. Gray (1998, 20) is not alone in arguing that the regime of laissez-faire is bound to give rise to counter-movements that will challenge its constraints (see for instance Munck 2002;Adaman, Devine et al. 2003;Udayarigi and Walton 2003;De Sousa Santos 2006;Munck 2006). It is here that Polanyi's (2001, 79) concept of 'double movement' -the emergence of protective counter-movements that blunt the destructive impact of the commodification of labour, land and money-becomes particularly relevant. ...
Castles, S., Arias, M., Koleth, E., Kim, C., Ozkul, D. and Williamson, R. (2011). ‘Karl Polanyi and Understanding Social Transformation’, Social Transformation and International Migration in the 21st Century Working Paper No 1, Sydney: University of Sydney.
... First, the economy is not an autonomous system but interdependent and interrelated with society and nature. (Adaman et al. 2003, Robbins 2004 (1991b, p. 21) and as an inherent consequence of post-modernity. Thus, also without taking a decidedly critical perspective, it appears that the ongoing development and expansion of the capitalist mode of production results in a de-contextualization of social (and natural) relations. ...
... (Barham 1997, Raynolds 2000, Lindenbaum 2016 Polanyi's primacy of social relations over economy but also with socio-ecological system thinking and ecological economics insistence on regarding the economy as a sub-system of society and ultimately nature. (Georgescu-Roegen 1987, Robbins 2004 In the literature, re-embedding is often understood as a process which takes place on the structural level, (Adaman et al. 2003, Hustinx and Meijs 2011, Sandbrook 2011, Quilley 2012 yet I argue that re-embedding can also take place on an individual level and in my cases plays an important role for the agency of the carsharers. (Giddens 1991b) Also on the micro level, re-embedding essentially refers to two interrelated meanings, derived from the two above implications of Polanyi's argument. ...
... how production, allocation and consumption could be organised. Given that alternative forms of organising economic relations, activities and decision-making processes towards embedding the economy within society and nature (in the parlance of Polanyi, 1944Polanyi, /2001; see also Adaman, Devine, and Özkaynak, 2007) are indeed being experimented within different contexts, the need for ecological economists to engage with the political economy of non/post-capitalist, alternative economic forms has emerged as a crucial task (Adaman and Devine, 2017). ...
... This means that social and ecological values, concerns and priorities of different groups who are potentially affected by those decisions would carry weight in the decision-making process, establishing an important form of societal control on economic activities. In this sense, cooperative enterprises have a significant potential to re-embed economic decisions within society and nature (Polanyi, 1944(Polanyi, /2001Adaman, Devine, and Özkaynak, 2007). Such a re-embedding would open space to rethink economic imperatives such as growth or efTciency, enable the articulation and operationalisation of alternative goals, and would in effect (re)politicise the economy by subjecting economic rationality to societal deliberation and control. ...
Ecological economics is at a sharp crossroads today, mostly due to the unprecedented scale of the intertwined social and ecological crises we face. We argue that the discipline should engage with the thinking and practices around alternatives to capitalism more substantially, as this is essential and invaluable for the discipline's ability to contribute to a just and sustainable future. We outline an agenda for future ecological economics research on economic alternatives that are shaped by the concrete ways in which economic democracy deals with issues of uncertainty, complexity and value incommensurability, and contribute to a kind of political economy that ecological economics would advocate. We lay out how this question could be operationalised within the context of allocation and exchange (i.e. alternatives to market), production and investment (i.e. alternatives to capitalist firm) and economic subjectivities (i.e. alternatives to self-interest).
... sible for a market society to be established, because people resist being dis-embedded and turned into commodities while demanding protection instead. This is what Polanyi describes as a 'double movement', i.e. the marketization of inevitably produces a protective counter-movement that insists on shelter from the damaging effects of the market while striving for an alternative -the democratic reinstitution of economy in local society and nature (Adaman et al. 2003), also described by Shiva in her concept of 'living-economy' (Shiva, 2005, p. 63-64). Following Shiva, robust living economies are people-centered, decentralized, sustainable and livelihood-generating, encompassing all the activities that restore and renew people's daily life. ...
... From an economic perspective local residents may be said to be dis-embedded and hence alienated from the productive resources of their local landscape when renewable energy corporations come in and appropriate their resources and in some ways 'sell them back' to the residents on terms that are perceived as unfair. This creates a situation where economic activity is constituted as a separate and distinct sphere, with its own logics and laws for labour, land and money, that remains abstracted from other aspects of human activity (Adaman et al. 2003). ...
The rationality of large scale deployment of wind energy to tackle climate change is entangled in the need for generating technological advancement, economic growth and social acceptance-the latter by supporting the reconciliation of local communities with green technologies, what we term as 'people-climate reconciliation'. However, as challenges in practice, and a growing research in the field of 'social acceptance' of renewable energy have shown, the form of reconciliation at stake seems often to happen economically, spatially and democratically detached from the local host communities. This paper argues that the understanding of people-climate reconciliation, framing modern wind power developments, is problematic due to its underlying principles of Green Capitalism and the processes of alienation that it creates. Inspired by Polanyi's concept of 'dis-embedding', i.e. the separation of economy from social relations, and Shivas's concept of 'living economy', i.e. local and decentralized economy shaped by people in their everyday lives, the paper sheds light on what and who is being reconciled when deploying wind farms. Based on empirical data from a Danish case the hegemonic discourse on reconciliation framing renewable energy policies and practices of large wind farm developers is juxtaposed with a local counter-discourse. In doing so, the paper identifies rationales underlying a community-based counter-movement. The paper argues for a reconciliation of renewables with the life of local citizens based on enhanced 're-embedding' of renewable energy developments into local culture and economy thereby considering dimensions of place-identity, equality and democracy.
... Lacher (1999: 325), for example, demands 'some form of socialism in which land, labour and money are no longer thought of as commodities'. Adaman et al. (2007) also advocate completely removing fictitious commodities from the market. They propose participatory planning to achieve this, claiming that under this form of organization, 'labour, land and money would cease to be fictitious commodities, society would control economic activity, and the economy would be re-embedded in both society and nature' (ibid.: 108). ...
... 31. See also Adaman et al. (2007) and Dale (2010Dale ( , 2016a. ...
Over the last two decades a rich and diverse body of literature has emerged which uses the 'double movement' to analyse social, political and economic change in the global South. The main aims of this article are to expand the boundaries of this scholarship and improve our understanding of how to use the concept to analyse capitalist development in the region. It seeks to achieve this by explaining and extending the original formulation of the double movement, creating a dialogue between scholars who follow alternative readings of the concept, and proposing a revised formulation which builds on the existing literature while moving in new directions. The article concludes by signposting potentially fruitful areas of Polanyian analysis.
... sible for a market society to be established, because people resist being dis-embedded and turned into commodities while demanding protection instead. This is what Polanyi describes as a 'double movement', i.e. the marketization of inevitably produces a protective counter-movement that insists on shelter from the damaging effects of the market while striving for an alternative -the democratic reinstitution of economy in local society and nature (Adaman et al. 2003), also described by Shiva in her concept of 'living-economy' (Shiva, 2005, p. 63-64). Following Shiva, robust living economies are people-centered, decentralized, sustainable and livelihood-generating, encompassing all the activities that restore and renew people's daily life. ...
... From an economic perspective local residents may be said to be dis-embedded and hence alienated from the productive resources of their local landscape when renewable energy corporations come in and appropriate their resources and in some ways 'sell them back' to the residents on terms that are perceived as unfair. This creates a situation where economic activity is constituted as a separate and distinct sphere, with its own logics and laws for labour, land and money, that remains abstracted from other aspects of human activity (Adaman et al. 2003). ...
The Journal of Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies (ISSN 1602-2297) 17, 1, pp. 5-21
The rationality of large scale deployment of wind energy to tackle climate change is entangled in the need for generating technological advancement, economic growth and social acceptance – the latter by supporting the reconciliation of local communities with green technologies, what we term as ‘people-climate reconciliation’. However, as challenges in practice, and a growing research in the field of ‘social acceptance’ of renewable energy have shown, the form of reconciliation at stake seems often to happen economically, spatially and democratically detached from the local host communities. This paper argues that the understanding of people-climate reconciliation, framing modern wind power developments, is problematic due to its underlying principles of Green Capitalism and the processes of alienation that it creates. Inspired by Polanyi’s concept of ‘dis-embedding’, i.e. the separation of economy from social relations, and Shivas’s concept of ‘living economy’, i.e. local and decentralized economy shaped by people in their everyday lives, the paper sheds light on what and who is being reconciled when deploying wind farms. Based on empirical data from a Danish case the hegemonic discourse on reconciliation framing renewable energy policies and practices of large wind farm developers is juxtaposed with a local counter discourse. In doing so, the paper identifies rationales underlying a community-based counter-movement. The paper argues for a reconciliation of renewables with the life of local citizens based on enhanced ‘re-embedding’ of renewable energy developments into local culture and economy thereby considering dimensions of place identity, equality and democracy.
... Yet because markets, far from being self-adjusting entities, result in social dislocation and tension, marketisation is accompanied by a self-protective counter-movement which brings a measure of social re-embedding -the so-called 'double movement'. Re-embedding is usually conceived in Polanyian scholarship in terms of regulation (Adaman et al. 2003), but in this paper we will take a broad view that also encompasses adaptive social behaviour. ...
... For some commentators the double movement is observable in successive cycles of reembedding and dis-embedding enacted over time. The establishment of the NHS as part of the post-war welfare state settlement may be seen as a high point in the attempt to reinstitute economic activity, followed in the 1970s by an epoch of dis-embedding through neo-liberal marketisation and organisational dis-integration (Adaman et al. 2003). 3 Currently the DH still exercises a strong steering role, for example, in setting national standards and targets, performance management via SHAs, and intervening in situations where the arms-length Monitor and CQC both claim responsibility (House of Commons Health Committee 2009:para 248). ...
This paper draws parallels between the market trend in the English NHS and Polanyi's (1957) The Great Transformation: The political and economic origins of our time, Beacon Press: Boston (originally published in 1944 in the United States as The Great Transformation, Rinehart: and Co: New York, and in 1945 in England as Origins of our time, Gollancz: London) account of how the rise of markets provokes a self-protective counter-reaction that tries to re-embed economic relations in social relations.
We report findings from a qualitative study of NHS contracting, which examines the recent move to harder-edged contracts with greater use of financial penalties and incentives. In practice, use of these techniques tended to be confined to nationally-mandated sections of the contract rather than emerging from local bilateral agreements, and when things went wrong the parties relied more on cooperative behaviour than on the provisions of the contract to find solutions.
Making the current contracting system work depended more on existing relational networks than on the incentive structures created by recent 'marketisation' initiatives, but the inability of the market to evolve as expected has encouraged policy makers to publish plans for further radical reforms.
... Recent work from proponents of negotiated coordination focuses on how the model would take care of ecological considerations (Adaman et Al. 2003;Adaman and Devine 2017;Devine 2017). For the authors, the institutions of negotiated coordination are re-embedding the economy into society and nature and are making the economic process more selfconscious and subject to a variety of points of view, including those defending the environment (Adaman et Al. 2003, 270-71;Devine 2017, 45-7). ...
Between 1988 and 1993 three models of democratic economic planning were designed by Pat Devine (joined later by Fikret Adaman), Michael Albert & Robin Hahnel and Paul Cockshott & Allin Cottrell. These three models are called negotiated coordination, participatory economics and computerized central planning. They are still at the center of the discussion about what a postcapitalist economy should look like. The goal of this research note is to give a short but clear presentation of their main institution and their functioning. A diagram of each model’s annual planning and a detailed glossary
divided by model accompanies the presentation to make the argument clearer. We abstained to relay or formulate any criticism of the models and only tried to present them as clearly as possible. To our knowledge, this is the first publication presenting the three models’ side by side.
... Polanyi-Levitt (1990: 117) also gives a sense of what embedding the economy might entail by identifying the central political and intellectual concern that animated her father: 'how to institute a social and political order in which personal responsibility of man for his fellow man, and man for his natural environment, can supersede the dictates of impersonal market forces and impersonal state technocracies'. Importantly, as Polanyi-Levitt (1990) suggests and Polanyi (1944Polanyi ( /2001 stresses, embedding does not imply a return to a distant uchronia, but the formation of new political and social institutions and practices that bring markets, technology and production under democratic control (Adaman et al., 2007;Cangiani, 2011Cangiani, , 2012Cangiani, , 2019Dale, 2010;Valderrama, 2019). 20 Connecting the double movement and disembedded economy concepts supports viewing the double movement as a continuous historical process that commenced in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries and has been evident in capitalism ever since. ...
Richard Sandbrook (this issue) makes an important contribution to Polanyian debates in his typically insightful article on the double movement. However, his reading of the concept has limitations when used to analyse the historical evolution of capitalism and the current conjuncture. The merits and limits of his analysis are outlined in this article through the discussion of three core Polanyian concepts — disembedded economy, decommodification and countermovement. The article concludes by signposting the contribution Polanyian analysis can make to efforts to decolonize knowledge and reimagine the economy in the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic.
... As foreseen by Polanyi more than 70 years ago, unless the very structure of the global political economy changes, unless we alter the political-economic relations and institutions as well as reorient our personal priorities, habits, and expectations in life, we should expect more environmental problems, hence more pandemics in the future (cf. Adaman, Devine, and Ozkaynak 2003). This ecological barrier also provides the necessary background against which to analyze another, yet interconnected crisis of global capitalism, i.e., crisis of "democracy," which has been exacerbated by the present crisis and is critical to develop a balanced assessment of what the post-pandemic world may look like from a Polanyian perspective. ...
The Godzilla-like image of the COVID-19 virus has been haunting the world. Not only has the virus unraveled nightmarish possibilities of the deaths of millions of people, but it has also served as a quintessential case revealing the contradictions and unsustainability of global capitalism. This chapter draws on Karl Polanyi’s economic sociology to make sense of the causes and possible consequences of the coronavirus crisis. I argue that Polanyi’s concepts of “(dis)embeddedness,” “fictitious commodities,” and “double movement” point to a broader argument concerning not just the “economy,” but the causes and implications of undermining the “natural and human substance” of society at large, hence useful in analyzing the social and ecological crises that have helped to cause the pandemic. Furthermore, I show that Polanyi’s work, often championed for its alleged support for regulated, social democratic, welfare capitalism, in fact promotes an anti-capitalist political vision. Polanyi’s radical critique of the capitalism of his time sheds new light on the ways in which the present crisis can be overcome.
... As foreseen by Polanyi more than 70 years ago, unless the very structure of the global political economy changes, unless we alter the political-economic relations and institutions as well as reorient our personal priorities, habits, and expectations in life, we should expect more environmental problems, hence more pandemics in the future (cf. Adaman, Devine, and Ozkaynak 2003). This ecological barrier also provides the necessary background against which to analyze another, yet interconnected crisis of global capitalism, i.e., crisis of "democracy," which has been exacerbated by the present crisis and is critical to develop a balanced assessment of what the post-pandemic world may look like from a Polanyian perspective. ...
... Yet the project of democratic economy is noteworthy nonetheless, as an imaginary if not as an institutionalized set of practices: it deconstructs imperatives such as economic growth and profit orientation, which are otherwise seen unquestionable. On the other hand, by opening all aspects of economic relations to decision making along a number of foundational principles, the project of democratic economy project subjects economy to ecological limits (taken to be binding) and societal control, and in doing so re-establishes the economy as a site of political decision making embedded within the society and the environment an effective re-embedding of the economy within the society and the environment (Adaman et al., 2003;Polanyi, 1944). ...
Critical perspectives on economic growth have laid bare the fragility of the assumed link between material growth and socio-ecological wellbeing. The appeal of economic growth, however, goes beyond the economic sphere. As a societal goal, growth is often mobilized to pre-empt and/or co-opt opposition around issues of social justice and redistribution. Not only does the constitution of growth as a collective goal serve to unite the internally fragmented sphere of the social and brush aside (class-based) distributional conflicts, but it also enables the distribution of material concessions to subordinate classes for eliciting their consent. The degrowth proposal should thus more broadly tackle the material and discoursive ways in which growth enables the reproduction of contemporary political-economic systems. This paper argues that the notion of growth functions as a powerful ideal that shapes state–society relationships and social-collective imaginations. It demonstrates this by discussing the making of state in Turkey through a Gramscian perspective, where the notion of economic growth is deeply imprinted in the broader practices of the state to legitimize its existence and dominates the social imaginary in a way that cannot be easily dismissed. Against this backdrop, the possibility of not only effectuating, but also imagining and desiring degrowth would call for a radical reconfiguration of state–society relationships. Within this context, the Kurdish Freedom Movement’s project of Democratic Economy emerges as an alternative, both to the nation-state paradigm and to the imperative of economic growth.
... Today, we should consider land to include a more comprehensive understanding of nature, soil and ecosystems (cf. Adaman, Devine, & Ozkaynak, 2003;Castree, 2010Castree, , p. 1738Prudham, 2013Prudham, , p. 1578. Concerning the bio-physical foundations of social life and the tendency to commodify them, Polanyi stated: 'What we call land is an element of nature inextricably interwoven with man's institutions. ...
The ecological crisis has intensified in many respects. Prominent proposals to deal with the crisis are discussed under the header ‘sustainability transformations’ or even ‘Great Transformation’. We argue that most contributions suffer from a narrow analytical approach to transformation ignoring the largely unsustainable dynamics of global capitalism and the power relations involved in it. Thus, a ‘new critical orthodoxy’ of knowledge about transformation is emerging which runs the danger to contribute to a spatially and socially highly uneven green capitalism. This article claims that the current debate on social-ecological transformation can be enriched by a Polanyian understanding but also based on regulation theory. We distinguish between three types of transformation: incremental adaptation of the current institutional systems, institutional change in favour of a new ‘green’ phase of capitalism, and a post-capitalist great transformation that implies a profound structural change of the mode of production and living.
... It also serves to monitor the effects of different institutional and Roegen 1965). Several European contributions also adopt Karl Polanyi's concepts of 'embeddedness,' 'fictitious commodities,' and 'substantive economics' as a basis for integrating institutional economics and EE (Barthelemy and Nieddu 2007;Adaman et al. 2003). Similarities between Polanyi's and Kapp's concepts exist Berger 2008b) and are considered to have potential for a further integration of institutional economics and EE (Özveren 2007: 191). ...
The Social Costs of Neoliberalism
... The culmination and qualitative elevation of private property under capitalism, along with the capitalist need to treat nature as an 'object' and an exploitable resource, have largely contributed to a conception of nature as an external and immutable reality. This historical process, in parallel with the generalisation of commodity production and wage labour under capitalism, has arguably led to a dis-embeddedment, not only of society from nature, but also of the economy from society (see Adaman et al., 2003). Thus, instead of recognising that nature and the ecosystem is the context and the material basis for all societies, and that the economy is inextricably related with society, the mainstream approaches consider nature, society and the economy as independent entities and theoretical categories. ...
Based on a critical consideration of mainstream theories and an alternative (Marxist) approach, this article explores some of the material, social and theoretical aspects of sustainable development. Starting from a critical scrutiny of some methodological and conceptual weaknesses or flaws of mainstream approaches, it proceeds with a brief discussion of the issues regarding externalities, the limits of growth, and the limitations of ecological reforms and efforts to create sustainability conditions under capitalism. Following a Marxist perspective, it proceeds to identify and briefly analyse some crucial aspects or preconditions for a truly sustainable development. A critical treatment of the conception concerning a growing ecological rift leads us to stress the significance of the organisational characteristics of capitalism and their implications for the nature-society dialectical metabolism. Particular emphasis is placed on the creation, within a historical perspective extending beyond capitalism, of the material and social preconditions of sustainable development.
... Although it is not our intention to propose an alternative to development per se, we emphasize that such a reorientation of development economics would serve to re-open the debate, perhaps more radically, on what development is and re-politicize and re-embed it within society and the environment (Adaman et al., 2007; see also Madra and Adaman, 2010). Despite the fact that there have almost always been dissenting voices within the field, in particular with regard to the notion of economic growth, they have largely been co-opted, contained or instrumentalized, as we have argued elsewhere in this article. ...
Contemporary mainstream development economics is an overdetermined product of three historical processes: the late neoclassical turn within mainstream economic theory; transformations within the institutional-discursive matrix of development, from growth-centred policies to poverty alleviation- and good governance-oriented policies; and a broader transition from post-war Keynesian developmentalism (with its variants in the second and third worlds) to existing varieties of neoliberal governmentality. This article assesses the trajectory of development economics through two historical shifts in the theoretical field. The first is from the ‘old’ school of structural transformation with a focus on sectoral balance and shifts to the ‘new’ school of structural adjustment programmes with a focus on micro-level incentive problems. The second shift is from the aggressively neoclassical orientation of the ‘new’ school to that of the contemporary constellation, where what is considered to be ‘good’ development economics has been gradually reduced to micro-level impact appraisals of developmental projects (the so-called ‘randomization approach’), while the broader macro-economic and historical questions are being increasingly handled through methodologically-individualist, late neoclassical models of institutions and growth (the so-called ‘new institutionalism’). The article concludes by insisting on the need for a new paradigm of development economics that would not only unearth the conflictual and antagonistic nature of development, but also render it an indispensable dimension of the study of development in a pluralist manner.
... 2010;Swyngedouw 2009;Zizek and Douzinas 2010).7 As the dis-embeddedment of the capitalist economy from society and nature caused the crisis there is a need to reinstitute, under social control, the (re)embeddedment of the economy in society, and of society within nature (Adaman et al. 2003). ...
The exacerbated (economic and ecological) crisis and the failure of conventional theories and policies aiming at eco-regulation and sustainable development of capitalism make it imperative to consider this socio-ecological crisis from an anti-systemic, communist perspective. This article is an attempt to articulate a unified and integrated interpretation of this socio-ecological crisis, based on a dialectical conception of the relationship between society and nature. The over-accumulation, rising organic composition of capital, and falling rate of profit play a central role in the analysis of this crisis and the articulation of its particular forms. As argued, capital’s strategic response to crisis and the deep restructuring of capitalism cannot ensure ecological and social sustainability, and more importantly the requirements of a socially acceptable human development. While there is some evidence of a recurrent accumulation and crisis, we are rather witnessing a secular downturn of capitalism and all attempts or tendencies towards “dematerialization” or “decoupling” of capitalist production (and growth) from its detrimental ecological impact fail to effectively encounter the root causes of crisis. An attempt is finally made to draw the “broad contours” of an alternative, communist outlook in overcoming this socio-ecological crisis, and a working-class strategy ensuring the conditions of sustainable human development and an ecologically compatible society.
... 21 Political philosophy finds no place in Luhmann's theoretical system, because political philosophy by definition is 'concerned with analyzing, evaluating and sketching political projects aimed at maintaining, reforming, or replacing a social order' (Bunge, 2001: 201). 22 See, among others, Devine (1988Devine ( , 2002, Devine (2001, 2006), Adaman et al. (2003), Noonan (2006Noonan ( , 2008, Callinicos (2003) and Hodgson (1998Hodgson ( , 2005. 23 Devine's ideas of negotiated coordination deserve an entire book on their own, and can be fruitfully compared with, or complemented by, similar lines of thought, including, for example: (1) Neill (2007: 186) aptly remarks, the major weakness in recent works on deliberative democracy is their 'avoidance of issues in political economy', since they tend to concentrate on a 'purely symbolic or cultural politics which fails to address the ways in which the structural imperatives of markets place constraints on the actual decisions of actors'. ...
In this article, Niklas Luhmann’s pessimistic view of steering [Steuerung] and planning in modern society is contrasted with Mario Bunge’s advocacy of ‘technoholodemocracy’ (or ‘integral democracy’) and some core ideas of the ‘critical social systems theory’ as developed by Christian Fuchs and others. Before that, the holistic leanings of Luhmann’s autopoietic approach, as exemplified by such notions as ‘structural coupling’ and ‘total exclusion’ [Totalausschluss], are briefly examined. I argue for a systems approach that is ontologically sound (that is to say, transcending both holism and individualism), with due consideration given to the role of human actors in designing, maintaining, improving, repairing or dismantling social systems. As the writings of Bunge and critical social systems theorists bear witness, a systems approach does not have to sacrifice human agency to blindly self-unfolding ‘social systems’.
... The final approach discussed here is the Polanyi-inspired account of the ecological crisis described by Adaman et al. (2003). This approach tends to be holistic and historical-oriented, as illustrated by the following judgment concerning SEE and the general programmatic appeal formulated by Adaman and Özkaynak (2002): ...
This paper provides a critical review of the ‘state of the art’ of institutional analysis applied essentially by social-ecological economists in the environmental domain. It highlights both areas of strength and issues where there is still room for improvement in analytical terms, by construing these approaches in the context of a general taxonomy of institutionalisms – widely used in politics and applied here in the economic realm. This provides the rationale for re-construing a number of related issues drawn from the core insights of a historical institutionalist approach to human-nature
This essay provides a framework to develop policies that can both resist the capitalist system and formulate alternatives to it, by critically reviewing discussions of an ecosocialist society and its economic organization through revisiting the “calculation debate” that was started in the 1930s and is still ongoing. It underlines the importance of repoliticizing the economic sphere to reembed the economy in society rather than society being subordinated to the economy. To that aim, it emphasizes the gravity of (1) planning our future, (2) coordinating our decisions before we embark on any action, (3) relying on knowledge in different forms and formats as articulated at both the individual and societal level, and (4) generating real democracy via participatory and deliberative mechanisms. Finally, the essay critically assesses progressive responses to current economic, ecological, and health crises and, because local and macro initiatives are equally important and feed one another positively, advocates for adopting a multiscale approach.
Money-free economies are a necessary – even if not sufficient – basis for establishing ecosocialism so that freely associated producers can produce to satisfy everyone’s basic needs while taking account of ecological limits. This chapter briefly outlines contemporary economic and environmental challenges, such as vast socio-political and economic inequalities and a global lack of sustainability increasingly couched in terms of emergencies and extinctions, including of humans. Fatal weaknesses of monetary economies that flourish within capitalism are identified. A vision of how such a nonmonetary ecosocialism might operate is outlined. Practical movements already oriented towards money-free societies are discussed. This underdeveloped area of thought and study might well be constituted in future as “real value studies” – building on certain nonmarket socialist thought. Money-free economies allow for the centrality of ecological, social, and humane values, enabling local people to establish direct and participatory decision-making over production on the basis of their real needs.
The chapter discusses short-term perspectives’s inefficacy within sustainability research and practice. Large parts of the sustainability transformation will happen in a future that is characterized by worsening economic and ecological conditions, environmental and resource use conflicts, and social and ecological catastrophes. The sustainability process needs to be rethought as process that extends through different phases, with each fomenting continuous knowledge improvements and collective learning, expressly integrating short and long-term perspectives, and also applying different combinations of methods of knowledge production and application across the phases. Planning, projecting, imagining and anticipating potential futures and development paths requires radically different tools, such as scenario-writing and horizon scanning, with both of these also being combined with other cutting-edge methods in future research.
In North America, uranium workers are fighting for their right to participate in a free-market system that provides them with small personal benefits. These workers experience powerlessness, instability, and unpredictability – or social dislocation – by living amidst capitalism's polluted ecosystems, unstable economies, and disintegrating communities. However, they feel reliant on uranium for their livelihoods and strongly support the industry's renewal and form sites of acceptance to support industry renewal. Here, we explore the phenomenon of pro-neoliberal activism emerging in communities that identify with uranium markets and that trust in corporate self-regulation, private transparency, and the perceived benefits of potential economic development. Polanyian theory helps us analyze these curious socio-environmental outcomes. While social movements might be ‘progressive,’ ‘regressive,’ or otherwise diverge, Polanyi consistently characterized double movement activists as protecting communities and ecosystems from unstable, self-regulating market systems. But here we see something different and ask: First, how does pro-neoliberal activism contribute to the embedding and institutionalization of neoliberal regimes in uranium mining communities? Second, what structural mechanisms precede and help to facilitate socio-cultural support for free markets and corporate self-regulation, as opposed to support for re-embedding markets in local, public social protections for the US uranium industry?
Karl Polanyi’s book The Great Transformation has had a substantial impact in a variety of disciplines. It contains a wealth of ideas which have helped scholars illuminate various contemporary political, social and economic issues. This chapter presents an approach to Polanyi’s work through the use of the movie Oliver Twist. It is argued that the movie provides an innovative way to think through some of the key themes in Polanyi’s book, in particular the famous metaphors of ‘embeddedness’ and ‘disembeddedness’ and also the relation that Polanyi posited between the economic ‘improvement’ experienced in industrialising Victorian England and the ‘habitation’ of the poor upon which such improvement depended. The chapter begins by presenting an intellectual case for foregrounding the historical and emotional aspects of The Great Transformation, moving on to interpret various scenes from the movie from a Polanyian perspective.
This article examines how nonhuman animals, along with land and labor, represent fictitious commodities as described by Karl Polanyi. Animals in agriculture are examined as an extreme example of animal commodification whose use resembles the exploitation of land and labor. Conceptual frameworks developed from Marxist theory, including the subsumption of nature, the second contradiction of capitalism, and alienation, are applied to illustrate how the negative impacts to animals, the environment, and public health associated with animal agriculture are caused by attempts to overcome the incomplete commodification of animals. This article illustrates how social theory can be extended to apply to animals, especially animals who are deeply embedded in human society. The inclusion of animals in social analyses also serves to strengthen our overall understanding of exploitation and oppression under capitalism.
This chapter assembles evidence that a new paradigm is emerging in the niches and margins of the dominant system, offering examples of a post-carbon society and what we need to get there. It outlines debates on a degrowth economy and society, and how feasible it is. The following section examines the structural nature of socioeconomic inequality and how to reduce it before mapping out an ‘economy for the common good’, based on different social values and more democratic governance. Key principles finding expression in the emerging alternative are traced back to the utopian socialists of the nineteenth century. For this reason, it is being given the name of ‘ecosocialism’ by some analysts. The chapter ends with a scorecard assessing potential future outcomes from climate capitalism and ecosocialism.
Purpose
Polanyi in his analysis of market dis-embedding suggests a drift in economic relations from the social to the fictitious. This paper adds two crucial components to the dis-embedding dynamic: rule of law discourse as a market force away from the social, and through suspension of imagination and of disbelief, the incongruous compatibility of actual and fictional markets that further works against embedding.
Design/methodology/approach
Theory building through the application and testing of Polanyian market dis-embedding analysis is a central concern for the paper. Through the example of FDI and the manner in which rule of law discourse masks Neo-liberal development inequities, the paper offers an understanding of the forces behind market dis-embedding North to South Worlds and the manner in which through the collusion of legal orientalist the true impact of the development inequities are concealed
Findings
The empirical value of the theorizing is to allow for studies of the impact of FDI on fragmented South World market economies using Polanyian dis-embedding refined by the suspension of critique which rule of law discourse enables
Originality/value
The masking functions of rule of law discourse in global trade contexts, the paper argues, conceal stark market power asymmetries hard wired into South World development policy through post-colonial free-trade regimes. The legal certainty and commercial predictability that the institutions and processes of dispersed law are said to ensure, have an established market relationship with global trade. However, while resting on ideologies of liberty and equality, rule of law discourse conceals their market suspension in favour of stabilising and auctioning universally inequitable market conditions for the purposes of the neo-liberal global trade agenda.
This thesis explores land reform, land markets and indigenous mobilisation in Highland Ecuador (1964-1994) through the lens of Karl Polanyi’s concept of the “double movement”. The concept suggests modern capitalist societies comprise two forces: the movement towards the creation, expansion and liberalisation of markets (commodification) and the countermovement towards the regulation of markets, the strengthening of the state, and the promotion of non-market forms of organisation (decommodification). The thesis adopts a radical reading of the concept which sees the double movement as a fundamental contradiction in modern capitalist societies. The empirical investigation offers support for this reading and provides fresh insights into the use of the concept. The value of narrowing the lens of the double movement to examine struggles that emerge around specific economic issues and involve particular social groups is also demonstrated. The thesis also sheds new light on Ecuadorian land reform and the role indigenous peoples performed in the process. Greater clarity is provided on the impact of land reform in the highland region and the land redistributed to indigenous families and communities. One of the central points to emerge from the analysis is that the collective organisation and mobilisation of indigenous peoples were required to secure land through agrarian reform. The relationship between indigenous peoples and land markets is also explored. A new concept is developed which provides insights into the opportunities and threats land markets created for indigenous peoples. The thesis places the 1990 and 1994 indigenous levantamientos within a long-term struggle over land which contrasts with accounts that interpret the uprisings as reactions to structural adjustment and neoliberal reform. The contemporary relevance of the research is demonstrated through the analysis of recent developments in Ecuador, concentrating on indigenous and peasant attempts to bring the use and distribution of land under social control.
My article provides a systematic interpretation of the transformation of capitalist society in the neo-liberal era as a form of what Karl Polanyi called ‘cultural catastrophe’. I substantiate this claim by drawing upon Erich Fromm’s theory of social character. Fromm’s notion of social character, I argue, offers a plausible, psychodynamic explanation of the processes of social change and the eventual class composition of neo-liberal society. I argue, further, that Fromm allows us to understand the psychosocial basis of the process that Polanyi calls cultural catastrophe. This requires an elucidation of the major social forces of financialization and emancipation which, I argue, proved to be important formative factors in the emergence of neo-liberal society. The cultural catastrophe of neo-liberalism concerns the working class, whose prevailing social character has become misaligned with the new expectations and requirements of neo-liberal society.
The crisis of neoliberal globalization has led many scholars back to Karl Polanyi in their search for alternatives to the present malaise. The dominant reading appropriates the concepts of embeddedness and the double movement in support of a system of regulated, welfare-state capitalism. This article contends, however, that the concepts of embeddedness and the double movement point not towards the need to regulate capitalist markets, but towards the radical supersession of capitalism itself.
My essay argues that neoliberal forms of government emerged through the shifting political trajectory of the therapeutic ethos in the postwar period in Anglo-American societies. In the postwar era, the therapeutic ethos attracted the attention of conservative cultural critics who described it as a destructive force on communal obligation. Initially, the therapeutic ethos appeared to align naturally with New Left ideas of democratization in the workplace and private sphere. However, I argue that the New Right was subsequently able to sever the therapeutic ethos from its alignment with social democratization by imbuing it with an alternative set of meanings centered on the ideas of market freedom and the entrepreneur. The result was the construction of the new, neoliberal forms of power, which, I argue, take the form of the management of subjectivity. Finally, I outline the two major social pathologies of the neoliberal era, namely, the consequences of its contractualized notion of citizenship and the explosion of social inequality, both of which are traceable to the influence of therapeutic notions of the self.
This paper argues that the theoretical contributions of Karl Polanyi can provide a compelling foundation for the analysis of community development (CD) processes and cases. Through a review of the international theoretical and empirical literature in CD the paper demonstrates that CD scholars work with concepts such as social solidarity, agency, self-help and mutual help, social capital, and reciprocity, that can be effectively understood in Polanyian terms. CD scholars explain the emergence of CD as a response to “modernization” where communities seek to mitigate the impacts of modernization while also taking advantage of its promises to improve communities and livelihoods. Also CD normative actions are explained in terms of building and rebuilding social capital in response to the erosion of communities caused by modern forces such as the nation state and industrial capitalism. CD scholars borrow from social analysts such as Jurgen Habermas, Paulo Freire, and Anthony Giddens to structure their explanatory and normative writing. But Polanyi is notably absent as a conceptual source in the CD literature. We argue that Polanyian concepts of the double movement, social disembeddedness, reciprocity institutions, and fictitious commodities can offer conceptual benefits to CD studies. For instance, Polanyi’s faculty for coherently defending the social and cultural spheres by using the language of institutional economics provides new perspectives that can induce new analyses of CD processes. Introducing these new perspectives can strengthen and
broaden the theoretical and practical capacity of CD by further bridging the gap between explanatory and normative trends in the field.
The concept of the counter-movement has had a significant impact within studies in International Political Economy (IPE). In the light of the credit crisis and the growth of growing resentment to the notion of the free market, the idea of the counter-movement has been utilised to understand social reaction to neoliberalism. This article argues that whilst the counter-movement has been used in unique and innovated ways, Karl Polanyi himself used the term largely to refer to a specific period in nineteenth-century British history. This article argues that whilst the counter-movement remains interesting, its application remains open to scrutiny. It questions whether the concept was indeed central to Polanyian economic thought and how much can be given to it in today's contemporary era of neoliberalism. It also suggests that by focusing merely on the counter-movement, Polanyian accounts within IPE are in danger of ignoring much of his wider critique of market economics.
Turkey has had a prolonged exemplary experience with economic development. In this paper we will trace the emergence of an
environmental concern within development planning in Turkey, after a brief theoretical discussion on rival frameworks. It
is our contention that, whereas economic policies are planned to meet certain goals, environmental policies are formulated
after observing the results of these economic policies and only in a fragmented manner. What is needed is an alternative comprehensive
policy based on a theoretical framework in tune with Karl Polanyi, Gunnar Myrdal, William Kapp and Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen,
in order to uplift the analysis and policy design to a comprehensive level.
The three books under review in this article all demonstrate the beginnings of a shift in the tone of literature on or derived from the work of Karl Polanyi. On one hand, the authors all show a willingness to admit a variety of problems and weaknesses in his work. But on the other hand, it is precisely this degree of critical introspection that enables the authors under review to identify some of the most important and contemporarily relevant aspects of Polanyi's thought. In the two main sections of this article – on Polanyi's concepts of ‘embeddedness’ and ‘double movement’ – I define the problems highlighted in previous iterations of Polanyian literature, moving on to examine how the texts under review address those problems, laying particular emphasis on the ideational components of Polanyi's thought. I conclude by suggesting future directions for Polanyian scholarship, mooting the possibility of a distinctively ‘post-Polanyian’ perspective in which ideas, discourse and framing are placed centre stage.
This paper examines the relationship that prevails between the state, economics, and freedom according to the works of Friedrich Hayek and Karl Polanyi. Hayek, who was one of the most important contributors to the development of the modern market economy and liberalism, formulated a concept of freedom that includes economic and negative freedom as significant components; his objective was to demonstrate the superiority of liberal capitalist societies over all other forms of organizing a society in terms of achieving freedom. Meanwhile, Polanyi, who confronted all forms of totalitarian regimes and argued that a "self-regulating market... was a utopian project," formulated a concept of freedom that rejected the self-regulating mechanism of the market economy as a component of freedom; he supported regulated markets and included moral, ethical, and social values among the key components required for the realization of freedom. This paper shows that Hayek failed to foresee the destructive social consequences and dehumanizing aspects of modern market capitalism, and promoted the free market economy as a guardian of freedom primarily for its instrumental value. Conversely, Polanyi was able to anticipate the modern market economy's potential to engender disastrous consequences for the whole of humanity and provided an honest and objective analysis of the modern market system that is indispensable for understanding the dilemmas, issues, and contradictions of economic globalization.
In the neoliberal era, Karl Polanyi’s notion of the ‘double movement’ has been widely deployed by social scientists as a critique of the prevailing order and a predictor of its demise. This article presents the double movement theorem, drawing upon Polanyi’s published and unpublished writings. It explores parallels between his explanation of the advent of the 19th-century free-market regime in Britain and recent Polanyian accounts of the rise of neoliberalism. Following an analysis of the ‘pendular’ refunctioning of Polanyi’s thesis, it closes by asking whether the recent global financial crisis heralds a pendulum swing from neoliberalism (or ‘market fundamentalism’) towards a form of socially coordinated capitalism, or towards ‘more of the same’. As of 2011, it appears that neoliberal policy and ideology remain hegemonic, not in reinvigorated form but as an ‘undead’ policy regime, one that has spawned a burgeoning literature on ‘zombie capitalism’ and ‘zombie neoliberalism’.
This article proposes a neo-Polanyian theoretical framework for understanding the dynamics within contemporary market societies. It uses this framework to analyze the divergence between the United States and other developed societies that has become more pronounced in the first years of the twenty-first century. The argument emphasizes the shifting political alliances of the business community in the United States and suggests that from 1994 onward, business lost power in the right-wing coalition to its religious Right allies. The growing power of a religious-based social movement is a critical ingredient in the unilateralist turn in the Bush Administration’s foreign policy.
This note is a rejoinder to Hodgson's second attempt at a critique of our model of participatory planning through negotiated coordination. The rejoinder is organized under four headings: market exchange and market forces/negotiated coordination; subsidiarity and pluralism; innovation, entrepreneurship, and tacit knowledge; and autonomy and self-government. We consider Hodgson's characterization of our position to be a travesty and rebut his assertions under each heading. The note concludes with a restatement of the promise of participatory planning – a self-governing society in which people have both the right to autonomy and privacy and also the right and responsibility to participate in the running of their society's economy, rather than leaving economic activity to be shaped by an economic ruling class and/or the coercion of market forces.
A fundamental principle of Karl Polanyi's institutional outlook is that any economic system has to be considered as a whole and as a historically specific social organization. This principle implies a comparative method and a critique of conventional economics. Besides, the problem of the interrelation between the economic system and other aspects of social life cannot be avoided. On this basis, Polanyi points out the peculiar "economic" nature of the market-capitalist society and explains the institutional transformations characterizing its history. The opposition "embedded/disembedded," used by Polanyi to distinguish pre-modern economies from the market economy, has been widely adopted in recent times, particularly by economic sociologists, as a key for understanding current complex economic phenomena. However, the reference to Polanyi often presupposes a distorted interpretation of his theory, and a different kind of institutional approach.
Musgravean public economics, as the dominant public policy framework of the post-World War II era, argued that the government can and should supplement the price mechanism in order to create a social order within which a democratic society can flourish. Starting with the late 1970s, this project of public economics has been challenged by the growing dominance of neoliberalism as a form of governmentality that extends the economic logic of markets into the domain of the state and its mode of exercising sovereignty over its subjects. After outlining the historical and the disciplinary context of this challenge, the article maintains that endogenous theoretical confrontations internal to public economics should also be taken into consideration to provide a fuller account of the eclipse of the Musgravean public economics in the era of neoliberalism.
The recent economic crisis has once more underscored the close connection between markets and social life, thrusting this
point at the centre of the analysis of economic and political activity and has once more asked the question of whether and
how individuals are embedded in both. Here I argue that an analysis and partial reconciliation of the positions of F.A. Hayek
and Karl Polanyi on the topic can help in this debate.
KeywordsHayek–Polanyi–Embeddedness–Markets
The strategy for NHS modernization in England is privileging individual choice over collective voice in the governance of healthcare. This paper explores the tension between economic and democratic strands in the current reform agenda, drawing on sociological conceptions of embeddedness and on theories of reflexive governance. Building on a Polanyian account of the disembedding effects of the increasing commercialization of health services, we consider the prospects for re-embedding economic relationships in this field. An analysis is provided of the limits of the present legal and regulatory framework of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in establishing the democratic and pragmatist conditions of social learning necessary for effective embedding. We show how the attainment of reflexive governance in the public interest is dependent on such conditions, and on the capacities of patients and the public to contribute to debate and deliberation in decision making, including on fundamental policy questions such as how services are provided and by whom.
Sustainable use of natural resources seems necessary to maintain functions and services of eco- and social systems in the long run. Efforts in policy and science for sustainable development have shown the splintering of local, national and global strategies. Sustainability becomes contingent and insecure with the actors´ conflicting knowledge, interests and aims, and seems even impossible through the “rebound”-effect. To make short and long term requirements of sustainability coherent requires critical, comparative and theoretical analysis of the problems met. For this purpose important concepts and theories are discussed in this review of recent interdisciplinary literature about resource management.
Organisation of the Book. ....
The papers brought together in this volume occupy various points on a continuum. For presentation purposes it is useful to identify three points of reference: (1) the conception of valuation exercises (what does it do, or try to do, what should it try to do?); (2) the tool box of methods, empirical enquiry procedures and analytical procedures that might be implemented; (3) the situations or socio–institutional contexts in which valuation practices may be envisaged.
• Early papers, chapters 2 to 5 of the book, explore valuation issues essentially at conceptual and methodological levels. The primary concern is with establishing a view about the nature of the problem/process of environmental valuation. What is valuation seeking to do as a measurement and decision support practice? Inevitably this means addressing the question as to what are the important social as well as ecological features of the situations being addressed, so scientific measurement and socio–institutional context issues interact — they cannot be maintained as isolated methodological compartments.
• Papers in the middle of the book, chapters 6 to 10 are primarily empirical in character, being attempts at discovering, eliciting or appraising or resolving conflicts over environmental values. They are state–of–the–art examples, in quite diverse contexts, that grapple with the real dilemmae of quantification and interpretation of multidimensional realities.
• Papers towards the end, chapters 11 to 16, represent a return to methodological themes, where the emphasis is on the formulation of evaluation practices that are adequate for particular sorts of environmental problems and institutional (policy, decisionmaking) contexts.
This division is, of course, a bit artificial. The various methodological discussions are supported by empirical illustrations, and the empirical studies are themselves the sites for methodological reflection (in some cases after the fact, in other cases intentionally). The selection as a whole represents, thus, a good spectrum — principally of European origins — of contemporary thinking and environmental valuation practice.
The main argument of this paper is that weak comparability of values should be seen as one characteristic feature of ecological economics. The formal properties of the concepts of strong comparability (implying strong or weak commensurability) and weak comparability (implying incommensurability) will be clarified. Multicriteria evaluation offers the methodological and mathematical tools to operationalize the concept of incommensurability at both macro and micro levels of analysis. The concept of incommensurability of values already has a long tradition in economics; moreover, we will show that analytic philosophy, theories of complexity, post-normal science and the recent theories of rationality lead with different trajectories to a non-algorithmic approach which, in our view, could be implemented by some forms of multicriteria evaluation.
This volume probes the many facets of capitalism's ecological contradictions and presents critical discussions of the politics of ecology under a free-market economy. Offering cogent analyses of the ways capitalism and liberal politics themselves are responding to this crisis, the book also presents the groundwork for meaningful social resistance to capitalist exploitations. Essays in this volume--contributed by leading scholars including Juan Martinez-Alier, Jean-Paul Deléage, Elmar Altvatar, Frank Beckenbach, Ariel Salleh, James O'Connor, John S. Dryzek, Margaret FitzSimmons, Colin Hay, Michael Gismondi, Mary Richardson, and Alex Demirovic--address two broad questions. First, is an ecologically sustainable capitalism possible? Second, is it possible for capitalism to be reformed to respect the integrity of social and ecological domains? In addressing these questions, the first half of the book appraises the ecological and economic contradictions of capital. Thought-provoking chapters discuss theoretical aspects of the relationship between capitalism and nature, such as whether the capitalist system is consistent with ecological sustainability; and which social and economic interests are served and which are forcibly suppressed in a market economy. Contributions drawing on critical perspectives in political economy, ecological economics, eco-feminism, and social history of science, place the industrial exploitation of wage labor within the larger context of the "external" domains of biophysical nature, human nature, and social infrastructures, upon which capitalist accumulation depends. The second half of the book focuses on the political institutions of liberal democracies and both their potential and limitations as vehicles for effective resolution of capitalism's ecological contradictions. Chapters examine the effectiveness of such liberal democratic actions as policy measures for clean air, worker's health, hazardous waste control, protection for endangered species, and international treaties and agreements. They also explore whether more radical democratic principles could furnish an adequate basis for responding to the social and economic dimensions of our ecological crises. The book is a sobering and timely antidote to the current rash of publications touting a successful marriage of market society to the goals of environmental quality and social justice.
Part I: Theory and Methods. Introduction (J.B. Braden, C.D. Kolstad and D. Miltz). Environmental Demand Theory (C.D. Kolstad and J.B. Braden). Household Production Functions and Environmental Benefit Estimation (V.K. Smith). Hedonic Methods (R.B. Palmquist). Constructed Markets (R.T. Carson). Part II: Methods for Valuing Classes of Environmental Effects. Environmental Health Effects (M.L. Cropper and A.M. Freeman III). Aesthetics (P.E. Graves). Recreation (N.E. Bockstael, K.E. McConnell and I. Strand). Materials Damages (R.M. Adams and T.D. Crocker). Total and Nonuse Values (A. Randall). Summary and Conclusions (J.B. Braden and C.D. Kolstad). Bibliography. Author Index. Subject Index.
This paper summarises the standard account of the economic calculation debate, the modern Austrian reinterpretation of the
debate based on the centrality of tacit knoweledge and discovery, and a neglected third strand in the historical debate, Dobb's
insistence on the uncertainty associated with atomistic decision making and the need for ex ante planning. It then draws some lessons for socialists from the debate and considers a possible market socialist response to
the modern Austrian challenge. The paper ends by outlining a model of participatory planning which incorporates both the modern
Austrians' insight into the importance of tacit knoweledge and Dobb's insistance on ex ante coordination.
This paper presents a systematic discussion, mainly for non-economists, on economic approaches to the concept of sustainable development. As a first step, the concept of sustainability is extensively discussed. As a second step, the argument that it is not possible to consider sustainability only from an economic or ecological point of view is defended; issues such as economic-ecological integration, inter-generational and intra-generational equity are considered of fundamental importance. Two different economic approaches to environmental issues, i.e. neo-classical environmental economics and ecological economics, are compared. Some key differences such as weak versus strong sustainability, commensurability versus incommensurability and ethical neutrality versus different values acceptance are pointed out.
Part of a Symposium entitled, "Say's Law Revisited," this note is dedicated to showing that both Say's and Ricardo's concerns about unemployment were deeper than even the Kates article (in this symposium) suggests, that this concern even led Say to advocate a clear Keynesian remedy for unemployment: public works. Correspondingly, the paper shows that Ricardo's disquiet about joblessness constitutes a good part of his reversal on the role of machinery (i.e., innovation) that so distressed his adherents.
For decades, economists have been extolling the virtues of market-based or economic-incentive approaches to environmental protection. Some 70 years ago, Arthur Cecil Pigou (1920) suggested corrective taxes to discourage activities that generate externalities. A half century later, J. Dales (1968) showed how the introduction of transferable property rights could work to promote environmental protection at lower aggregate cost than conventional standards. From these two seminal ideas - corrective taxes and transferable property rights - a substantial body of research has developed. Both environmental taxes and marketable permits are coming of age in the policy arena. Examples include the introduction of marketable permits in the United States to control acid rain, the use of changes in Europe to limit air and water pollution, and the employment of deposit-refund schemes for products ranging from beverage containers to batteries. The introduction of these tools on a large scale provides a unique opportunity to extend the frontiers of knowledge. This essay strives to identify prominent issues that merit investigation. 8 refs.
The importance of the environment for economic activity and, in turn, the impact of economic activity on nature, have motivated economists to include the analysis of the relationship between economics and the environment in their research agenda since economics became a discipline. Given the existence of different schools of thought within economics-at times complementary and at times conflicting-the debate over the way in which this relationship should be conceptualized and analyzed has a history as old as that of the interest itself.
This paper aims to propose a political economy framework to analyze environmental problems in Turkey. A political economy approach seems to be the appropriate way of investigating environmental issues, as not only are economy and the environment interwoven entities, changes in one affecting the other, but also collective actions are almost always required in dealing with such problems. With this integrated approach one can thus better understand the causes of such a degradation and subsequently search for the economic and political conditions that are conducive to halt environmental degradation.
Despite its theoretical and implementational problems, conventional economic theory has a well developed body of tools for examining environmental degradation, i.e. pollution and overuse of natural resources. But the theory assumes the existence and competence of a rather sterile political authority which enforces corrective measures. The corollary of this assumption is that the enforceability of these measures will become lax should there exist various forms of government failures. This paper will focus on Turkey as an example of a country where such government failures have been
a priori
accepted.
This paper examines the nature of ecological economics, arguing that it comprises two aspects, the qualitative framework within which it operates and the quantitative techniques which it uses to measure sustainability, evaluate policies and assist decision‐making. The former is distinct to ecological economics, whereas the latter is largely shared with environmental economics. Although these have co‐existed for some time, it is contended that the qualitative aspect needs to be developed if ecological economics is to realise its potential. The paper first offers a Schumpeterian "pre‐analytic" vision of ecological economics. Ecological economics, it is argued, necessarily implies a fundamental change in the way problems are perceived and in how they should be addressed. Second, the paper discusses the quantitative aspect of ecological economics, arguing that the overlap with environmental economics in the techniques used is one reason why the two have frequently not been seen as sufficiently distinct. The paper concludes that a development of the qualitative, procedural aspect of ecological economics is needed if its full potential for influencing policy‐making is to be realised.
Evolution of the Market PatternThe Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land, and Money
The Problem to be ExaminedThe Reciprocal Nature of the ProblemThe Pricing System with Liability for DamageThe Pricing System with No Liability for DamageThe Problem Illustrated AnewThe Cost of Market Transactions Taken into AccountThe Legal Delimitation of Rights and the Economic Problem
Valuing is usually regarded as a process of compressing information about attributes into a single metric. Armed with this reduced form of compact information, the consumer can consider a particular object, with a particular price attached (or implied), and make an "informed" decision. But the process of valuing is less straightforward than we ordinarily suppose. When environmental goods and services become the object of information compaction, it is possible that important information is lost. We comment on the choice problem germane to environmental goods and services and challenge the presumption that environmental choices made without explicit pricing are inferior to those in which hypothetical valuation studies are undertaken.
Power of the markets and the environment
- F Adaman
- F Goksen
- U Zenginobuz
Adaman, F., Goksen, F. and Zenginobuz, U. (mimeo) 'Power of the markets and the environment'.
Market socialism or socialization of the market?
- D Elson
Elson, D. (1988) 'Market socialism or socialization of the market?', New Left Review, Vol. 172, pp. 3-44.
Operationalising sustainability', MPhil thesis
- B Ozkaynak
Ozkaynak, B. (2000) 'Operationalising sustainability', MPhil thesis, University of Manchester.
Democracy and Economic Planning
- P Devine
Devine, P. (1988) Democracy and Economic Planning, Cambridge, Polity Press.
Free Market Environmentalism Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. 07 adaman (jk/d).fm Page 373 TuesdayMarket socialism: a case for rejuvenation
- T Anderson
- D Leal
- Adaman
Anderson, T. and Leal, D. (1991) Free Market Environmentalism, San Francisco, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. 07 adaman (jk/d).fm Page 373 Tuesday, August 12, 2003 2:09 PM Downloaded by [Chulalongkorn University] at 11:03 25 December 2014 374 F. Adaman et al. Bardhan, P. and Roemer, J. (1992) 'Market socialism: a case for rejuvenation', Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 101–116.
For an example of the 'ultra-liberal' position, see
- See Coase
See Coase (1960). For an example of the 'ultra-liberal' position, see Anderson and Leal (1991).
Is Capitalism Sustainable? Political Economy and Politics of Ecology
- M O'connor
O'Connor, M. (ed.) (1994) Is Capitalism Sustainable? Political Economy and Politics of Ecology, New
York and London, Guildford Press.
“'Operationalising sustainability
- B Ozkaynak