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Polanyi's Double Movement and Capitalism Today

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  • Richard Sandbrook

Abstract

What is the most fruitful conceptualization of Karl Polanyi's ‘double movement’ in contemporary capitalist studies? For Polanyi, it is a conceptual device for explaining a particular historical sequence leading to the collapse of Western civilization in the 1930s and 1940s. For his current followers, the double movement is of broader and longer‐term significance. Some conceive it as representing a continuous and inherent contradiction within capitalism that can only be resolved, and the economy embedded in society, with the end of capitalism. Others conceive of the double movement as representing an oscillating imbalance between the liberal movement and the countermovement of societal protection, with the former's ascendancy impelling a disembedding tendency and the latter's a re‐embedding tendency. This article argues that the most fruitful approach is to treat the double movement as a two‐phase conceptual model that has a real, though limited, heuristic value in understanding liberal‐democratic capitalist development.

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  • Richard Sandbrook, 2022. "Polanyi's Double Movement and Capitalism Today," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(3), pages 647-675, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:53:y:2022:i:3:p:647-675
    DOI: 10.1111/dech.12699
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Goodwin, Geoff, 2018. "Rethinking the double movement: expanding the frontiers of Polanyian analysis in the Global South," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87253, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Andrew M. Fischer, 2020. "The Dark Sides of Social Policy: From Neoliberalism to Resurgent Right‐wing Populism," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(2), pages 371-397, March.
    3. Rowan Alcock, 2021. "The Unconscious Countermovement and the Conscious Polanyian Movement: A New Vocabulary for Contemporary Polanyian Scholarship," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 152-167, January.
    4. Ray Kiely, 2020. "Assessing Conservative Populism: A New Double Movement or Neoliberal Populism?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(2), pages 398-417, March.
    5. Rena Sung & Erica Owen & Quan Li, 2021. "How do capital and labor split economic gains in an age of globalization?," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 232-257, January.
    6. Geoff Goodwin, 2018. "Rethinking the Double Movement: Expanding the Frontiers of Polanyian Analysis in the Global South," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(5), pages 1268-1290, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ostrowski, Wojciech, 2023. "The twilight of resource nationalism: From cyclicality to singularity?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

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