Embeddedness and Disembeddedness in Economic Sociology in Three Time Periods

Abstract

The article sets out to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the concept of embeddedness in economic sociology, juxtaposing it with the question of disembeddedness through an analysis of three time periods. In the first period, the interpretation of the concept introduced by Karl Polanyi was marked by the notion of “social construction of the economy.” In the second period, the debate focused on criticizing the liberalizing agenda of the Washington Consensus, suggesting that its negative effects on economic development and social solidarity would force the state to retake control of the economy, re-embedding it. The third period acknowledges the specificity of the market economy through an analysis of neoliberalism as a political-institutional arrangement and a moral-normative system that produces “embeddedness on disembeddedness.” The article also discusses the re-establishment of social solidarity in an increasingly disembedded economy.

Technological Integration and Obstacles in China’s Agricultural Extension Systems: A Study on Disembeddedness and Adaptation

“…Polanyi's concept of "disembeddedness" pertains to the state in which an economic system detaches from the operation of a social system due to the development of self-regulating markets driven by the multiple commodifications of land, labor, and nature [41,42]. While Polanyi emphasized that self-regulating markets never fully emerged, this tendency has become increasingly pronounced, causing significant disruptions to the functioning of social systems [43]. Taking agricultural disembeddedness as an example, the influx of capital into rural areas and the market-oriented transformation have caused agricultural operations to disentangle from rural social networks, becoming disconnected from the production and daily lives of farmers.…”