On 8 May 2018, the International Karl Polanyi Society was founded in Vienna. This marked the beginning of a new phase of engagement with a thinker who had already come to be regarded as a centennial figure in the Anglo-Saxon world.
This book serves as an introduction to The Great Transformation, Polanyi’s magnum opus and one of the most important works of the 20th century. It helps us to understand the background to Karl Polanyi’s intellectual career, sketches the lives of his family members, describes the milieus of Budapest, Vienna, London and New York, which were such informative influences in his life, and sheds light on his relationship with contemporaries such as Keynes, Mises and Hayek.
Renowned Polanyi researchers, including, most notably his daughter Kari Polanyi Levitt, elucidate Polanyian concepts such as ‘fictitious commodities’ and apply his analysis to an era when everything seems to be subjected to the mechanics of the market.
BRIGITTE AULENBACHER, MARKUS MARTERBAUER, ANDREAS NOVY, KARI POLANYI LEVITT, ARMIN THURNHER (EDS.)
KARL
POLANYI
The Life and Works of an Epochal Thinker
Translated by Jan-Peter Herrmann and Carla Welch
The translation has been funded by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.
FALTER VERLAG
© 2020 Falter Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H.
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All rights reserved. No unauthorized copying
ISBN ePub: 978-3-85439-344-3
ISBN Kindle: 978-3-85439-357-3
ISBN Print edition: 978-3-85439-689-5
1st digital edition: Zeilenwert GmbH 2020
TABLE OF CONTENT
Brigitte Aulenbacher, Andreas Novy: Acknowledgements
Armin Thurnher: Foreword of the German edition
Brigitte Aulenbacher, Veronika Heimerl, Andreas Novy: The Limits of a Market Society
Armin Thurnher: ‘Many graze on Polanyi’s pasture’
Michael Burawoy: Fictitious Commodities and the Three Waves of Marketization
II. The Personal and the Historical
Michael Brie, Claus Thomasberger: Freedom in a Threatened Society
Veronika Helfert: Born a Rebel, Always a Rebel
Andreas Novy: From Development Economist to Trailblazer of the Polanyi Renaissance
Franz Tödtling: From Physical Chemistry to the Philosophy of Knowledge
Michael Mesch: Milieus in Karl Polanyi’s Life
Gareth Dale: Karl Polanyi in Budapest
Robert Kuttner: Karl Polanyi and the Legacy of Red Vienna
Sabine Lichtenberger: ‘The Earliest Beginnings of His Later Teaching Life’
Andreas Novy, Richard Bärnthaler: The Great Transformation: Reflections on a Liberal Illusion
Peter Rosner: Karl Polanyi, Ludwig von Mises and the Issue of Planning
Kari Polanyi Levitt: Karl Polanyi and Ludwig von Mises: Contested Views on World Development
Elisabeth Springler: Karl Polanyi and John Maynard Keynes: Two Men Bucking the Mainstream
Michael Brie: Karl Polanyi and Nancy Fraser in Dialogue
IV. Understanding Contemporary Capitalism
Karina Becker, Sophie Bose: ‘You, as a German, are worth nothing at all’
