The significance of Polanyi’s contribution: an interpretation of neoliberalization and commodification of nature

Abstract

Ph.D. student in Globalization Studies (FCSH-UNL, Portugal) and researcher at CENSE -Environment and Sustainability Research Centre (FCT-UNL). She holds a master degree in International Relations from the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Florence, where she graduated in International Studies. She has a postgraduate diploma in Sustainable Cities (FCT-UNL). As a researcher, she has been involved in European projects in the field of environmental and green economy policies and has been conducting research on national and international policy instruments and co-governance models for nature conservation. AbstractPolanyi's analysis and contributions have been brought back into discussion due to the rapid emergence of market-based instruments designed to tackle environmental degradation.Polanyi is a crucial reference in current debates on globalization and international political economy. This article seeks to explore and discuss how his perspective, and the founding concepts of his work, can help us to interpret the current process of the neoliberalization and commodification of nature.

Legal Predistribution, Market Justice, and Dedemocratization: Polanyi and Piketty on Law and Political Economy

“…There is a great deal of scholarship on the commodification of nature and the entire nonhuman planet, touching on environmental law, animal rights law, and disaster law, and there have been a lot of interesting attempts to undo this commodification by, for example, granting rights to rivers and attempting to use the writ of habeas corpus on behalf of sentient nonhumans such as orcas and chimps. See for example Pettifor (2019), Steinberg (2019), andIannuzzi (2018). Similarly, there is new scholarship that shows money as a social and political relationship, not a commodified medium of exchange.…”