Table Of ContentCapitalism in Transformation
Capitalism in
Transformation
Movements and Countermovements in the 21st
Century
Edited by
Roland Atzmüller
Johannes Kepler University, Austria
Brigitte Aulenbacher
Johannes Kepler University, Austria
Ulrich Brand
University of Vienna, Austria
Fabienne Décieux
Johannes Kepler University, Austria
Karin Fischer
Johannes Kepler University, Austria
Birgit Sauer
University of Vienna, Austria
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
© Roland Atzmüller, Brigitte Aulenbacher, Ulrich Brand, Fabienne Décieux, Karin
Fischer and Birgit Sauer 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
The Lypiatts
15 Lansdown Road
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 2JA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
William Pratt House
9 Dewey Court
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019949930
This book is available electronically in the
Social and Political Science subject collection
DOI 10.4337/9781788974240
ISBN 978 1 78897 423 3 (cased)
ISBN 978 1 78897 424 0 (eBook)
2
0
Contents
List of contributors viii
1 Polanyian perspectives on the movements and
countermovements of “our time”: an introduction 1
Roland Atzmüller, Brigitte Aulenbacher, Ulrich Brand,
Fabienne Décieux, Karin Fischer and Birgit Sauer
PART I HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL
REFLECTIONS: KARL POLANYI,
CAPITALISM AND SOCIETY
2 A life-long search for freedom. From Budapest to
America and back: a journey through Karl Polanyi’s life 22
Kari Polanyi-Levitt, interviewed by Michael Brie and
Claus Thomasberger
3 “Plunges into utter destruction” and the limits of historical
capitalism 35
Beverly J. Silver
4 Crises and transformations: suggestions from Karl
Polanyi’s works 46
Michele Cangiani
5 Karl Polanyi as a theorist of disembedded markets 60
Christoph Deutschmann
6 A Polanyian paradox: money and credit as fictitious
commodities, financialization, finance-dominated
accumulation, and financial crises 75
Bob Jessop
v
vi Capitalism in transformation
PART II CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS OF
SOCIETY AND CAPITALISM IN EUROPE
AND BEYOND
7 Polanyian perspectives on capitalisms after socialism 92
Dorothee Bohle and Béla Greskovits
8 Economy–society tensions in the Eurozone: the
“anti-democratic virus” revived 105
Maria Markantonatou
9 Political Islam as reactionary countermovement 119
Ayşe Buğra
10 “Freedom’s utter frustration…”: considerations on
neoliberal social-policy reforms and the shift to the
far-right through Polanyi’s theory of fascism 135
Roland Atzmüller and Fabienne Décieux
11 Völkisch populism: a Polanyian-type movement? 152
Karina Becker and Klaus Dörre
12 Cultural war 2.0? The relevance of gender in the radical
populist-nationalist right 169
Birgit Sauer
PART III “FICTITIOUS COMMODITIES” AND THE
CHALLENGES OF “OUR TIME”
13 Contested social-ecological transformation: shortcomings
of current debates and Polanyian perspectives 184
Ulrich Brand, Christoph Görg and Markus Wissen
14 Polanyi, nature and the international: the missing
dimension of imperial ecocide 198
Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams
15 Soy expansion and countermovements in the Global
South: a Polanyian perspective 212
Karin Fischer and Ernst Langthaler
16 Navigating between improvement and habitation:
countermovements in housing and urban infrastructure in
Vienna 228
Andreas Novy, Richard Bärnthaler and Basil Stadelmann
Contents vii
17 The “fictitious commodity” care and the reciprocity of
caring: a Polanyian and neo-institutionalist perspective
on the brokering of 24-hour care 245
Brigitte Aulenbacher and Michael Leiblfinger
18 The commodification of informal care: joining and
resisting marketization processes 261
Bernhard Weicht
19 Polanyi’s double movement and the making of the
“knowledge economy” 274
Antonino Palumbo and Alan Scott
20 Polanyi and the digital transformation of labour: on
fictitious commodities and real conflicts 289
Hans-Jürgen Urban
Index 307
Contributors
Roland Atzmüller is Associate Professor at the Department for the Theory
of Society and Social Analyses, Institute of Sociology, Johannes Kepler
University Linz, Austria. He works on critical social theories, transformation
of (welfare) states, social policies and work. Recent publications include:
Krisenbearbeitung durch Subjektivierung: Kritische Theorie der Veränderung
des Staates im Kontext humankapitalzentrierter Sozialpolitik, Westfälisches
Dampfboot 2019; Empowering Young People in Disempowering Times:
Fighting Inequality through Capability Oriented Policy, Edward Elgar 2017
(co-edited with Hans-Uwe Otto, Valerie Egdell and Jean Michel Bonvin).
Brigitte Aulenbacher is Professor of Sociological Theory and Social
Analysis, heads the Department for the Theory of Society and Social Analyses
at the Institute of Sociology at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria,
and is vice-president of the International Karl Polanyi Society. She co-chairs
(with Helma Lutz and Karin Schwiter) the project “Decent Care Work?
Transnational Home Care Arrangements” and co-edits (with Klaus Dörre)
Global Dialogue – Magazine of the International Sociological Association.
Recent publications include: ‘Global Sociology of Care and Care Work’,
Current Sociology, 66 (4) 2018 (co-edited with Helma Lutz and Birgit
Riegraf); Special Issue: ‘Care and Care Work: A Question of Economy,
Justice and Democracy’, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International
Journal, 37 (4) 2018 (co-edited with Birgit Riegraf); ‘Karl Polanyi, “The Great
Transformation”, and Contemporary Capitalism’, Österreichische Zeitschrift
für Soziologie, 44 (2) 2019, 105–13 (co-edited with Richard Bärnthaler and
Andreas Novy).
Richard Bärnthaler, MSc, works at the Institute for Multilevel Governance
and Development (WU Vienna) and the Department of Development Studies
(University of Vienna) on questions concerning philosophy of science, science
studies, transdisciplinarity, and (Polanyi-related) transformation research.
Recent publications include: ‘The Fallacy of Naturalism as a Response to the
Relativist’, Organon F: International Journal of Analytic Philosophy, 25 (3)
2018, 316–38; ‘Karl Polanyi, “The Great Transformation”, and Contemporary
Capitalism’, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 44 (2) 2019, 105–13
(co-edited with Brigitte Aulenbacher and Andreas Novy).
viii
Contributors ix
Karina Becker is the scientific director of the Centre of Advanced Research
“Post Growth Societies” at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena (Germany).
Her research areas include right-wing populism, care work, solidarity, and
industrial relations. Recent publications include: ‘Live-in and Burn-out?
Migrantische Pflegekräfte in deutschen Haushalten’, Arbeit: Zeitschrift für
Arbeitsforschung, Arbeitsgestaltung und Arbeitspolitik, 25 (1–2) 2016, 21–46;
Arbeiterbewegung von rechts? Ungleichheit – Verteilungskämpfe – pop-
ulistische Revolte, Campus 2018 (co-edited with Klaus Dörre and Peter
Reif-Spirek); ‘Temporary Workforce Under Pressure: Poor Occupational
Safety and Health (OSH) as a Dimension of Precarity?’, Management Revue,
29 (1) 2018, 32–54 (co-authored with Thomas Engel).
Dorothee Bohle holds a Chair in Social and Political Change at the Department
of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute, Florence.
Her research is at the intersection of comparative politics and political economy
with a special focus on East Central Europe. Her most recent book, Capitalist
Diversity on Europe’s Periphery (Cornell University Press 2012, co-authored
with Béla Greskovits), won the Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social
Science Research. Her publications have also appeared in Comparative
Politics, Studies in Comparative International Development, West European
Politics, Journal of Democracy, European Journal of Sociology, and Review
of International Political Economy. Recent publications include: ‘European
Integration, Capitalist Diversity and Crises Trajectories on Europe’s Eastern
Periphery’, New Political Economy, 23 (2) 2018, 239–53.
Ulrich Brand is since 2007 Professor of International Politics at the University
of Vienna. Since 2017 he is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the
Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam. His research
areas are: imperial mode of living, multiple crises of liberal globalization,
social-ecological transformation, political ecology, state and regulation theory,
and Latin America. Recent publications include: The Limits to Capitalist
Nature: Theorizing and Overcoming the Imperial Mode of Living, Rowman
& Littlefield 2018 (co-edited with Markus Wissen); ‘The Double Materiality
of Democracy in Capitalist Societies: Challenges for Social-Ecological
Transformations’, Environmental Politics (online), 2018 (co-authored with
Melanie Pichler and Christoph Görg); ‘Growth and Domination: Shortcomings
of the (De-)Growth Debate’, in Stefan G. Jacobsen (ed.), Climate Justice and
the Economy: Social Mobilization, Knowledge and the Political, Routledge
2018, 148–67.
Michael Brie, Dr. habil., is senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Social
Analysis of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Berlin in the field of history
and theory of socialism and communism. He is chief-editor of the series
