"The outstanding discovery of recent historical and anthropological research is that man's economy, as a rule, is submerged in his social relationships. He does not act so as to safeguard his individual interest in the possession of material goods: he acts so as to safeguard his social standing, his social claims, his social assets"
(Karl Polanyi, 'The Great Transformation', 1944)
The Karl Polanyi Research Network
The Karl Polanyi Research Network pages are hosted by the Crisis States Research Centre. We support the work of the Karl Polanyi Institute and our aim is to disseminate research inspired by Polanyi and to promote debate around his ideas and their implications for understanding the processes of social, economic and political change in the modern world.
We are happy to publicise notices on this site concerning events or publications relating to the work or ideas of Karl Polanyi. Please send these to: csp@lse.ac.uk
"While Polanyi saw the state as essential to imposing the 'unnatural' relationships required by market society he also saw the state as essential to making the 'process of economic improvement' socially bearable"
(James Putzel, Politics, the State and the Impulse for Social Protection, WP18, Oct 2002)