The Belief in Economic Determinism, Neoliberalism, and the Significance of Polanyi's Contribution in the Twenty-First Century

How can we explain why Karl Polanyi's book <i>The Great Transformation</i> is more relevant today than ever before? The central thesis of the paper is that Polanyi's analysis is groundbreaking because it goes far beyond the interpretation of the civilization of the nineteenth century. By focusing on the "belief of economic determinism," Polanyi challenges the juxtaposition of being and thinking, of material life-process and consciousness. He rejects the assumption that society encompasses a world of objective facts independent of theoretical beliefs and visions. Polanyi's work is of utmost importance today because by anticipating a change in approach such as the liberal authors made, from the opposite point of view, during the interwar period, he offers the key not only to the analysis of the market mechanism, but also to a critical understanding of neoliberalism.