The political trilemma of contemporary social-ecological transformation – lessons from Karl Polanyi’sThe Great Transformation

Double Movements and Disembedded Economies: A Response to Richard Sandbrook

“…While rupture and transformation are central to Polanyi's analysis of capitalism (Novy, 2020), he was more evolutionary than revolutionary when considering transitions to socialism, as Sandbrook (this issue) notes. The hope that Polanyi held of a gradual transition to socialism, which appeared to fade over time, was grounded in his belief in the possibility of transcending capitalism through the deepening of democracy.…”

“…Burawoy (2013: 39-40) also sees struggles related to the fictitious commodification of nature as one of the distinguishing features of contemporary countermovements, arguing that they 'will have to limit capitalism's tendency to destroy the foundations of human existence, calling for the restriction and regulation of markets and a socialisation of the means of production which would be as compatible with the expansion of freedoms as with their contraction'. See also Brand et al (2020), Novy (2020) and Wanner (2015). 43.…”

“…But he points to a more profound and enduring capitalist transformation, claiming that the difference between embedded and disembedded economies is 'fundamental to the understanding of modern society' (Polanyi, 1957a: 68). 11 He therefore situates the disembedded economy within the longer-term epochal shift towards capitalist European modernity (Lacher, 2019;Novy, 2020). What, then, are the broad macro characteristics of a society with a disembedded economy?…”

From planetary to societal boundaries: an argument for collectively defined self-limitation

“…Individually and collectively these conceptions embody alternatives in worldviews and practices that challenge the structures of inequality, oppression, and unsustainability and replace them with those that promote justice, equality, and sustainability. They share a rejection of neoliberal globalization, and embrace forms of selective economic deglobalization (Bello 2008;Novy 2020) which involves dismantling the "one big market" (Polanyi 2001(Polanyi [1944) coordinated by global financial markets and sustained by fossil-fuel logistics of airports, motorways, and cargo shipping. Under certain circumstances, the collective self-determination of communities requires control over their own boundaries to protect subsistence and livelihood sovereignty against global trade and investment agreements such as the European Union-Mercosur Treaty with respect to food systems.…”

Liberation and limitation: Emancipatory politics, socio-ecological transformation and the grammar of the autocratic-authoritarian turn

“…With regard to this autocratic-authoritarian turn, too, Polanyi's Great Transformation provides instructive pointers (e.g. Novy, 2020). Indeed, for Polanyi the concept of the great transformation refers not only to the metamorphosis of feudal society into industrial society and the disembedding of the capitalist economy from its societal context, but also to the collapse of the liberal order and the 'victory of fascism' (Polanyi, 1944(Polanyi, /2001.…”