Polanyi in rural China: beyond the double movement

This article clarifies the use of Polanyian theory to interrogate rural China’s historical trajectory. It critiques the use of Polanyi’s double movement concept to analyse state-socialist periods arguing that because the double movement concept was explicitly created to interrogate capitalist systems, in which land and labour were marketized, it cannot be transposed onto state-socialist periods. This article further argues that as the double movement necessarily entails the possibility of transcending a capitalist system to socialism, the double movement’s explanatory power is further undermined when used within a state-socialist context. This includes the context of Maoist China which this article explores. This article suggests using the vocabulary Polanyi employs when discussing Soviet Russia to interrogate the Maoist period. However, it supports the use of Polanyi’s double movement concept to interrogate post-1984 China as this period demonstrates increasing market penetration of society. The article further argues that when using the double movement to interrogate any system with significant market penetration scholars ought recognise the double movement’s dialectical process. This dialectical reading suggests the double movement is destructive to society and its internal contradiction creates progressive and regressive possibilities. This article explores the Chinese New Rural Reconstruction Movement as a potential progressive possibility.