Karl Polanyi In Dialogue

The contemporary Left fights its political battles on various fronts: protesting the crippling structural inequalities that sustain neoliberal economic policy; developing sustainable, community-based alternatives to the consumerism and short-termism that exacerbate the environmental crisis; and advocating for the cultural recognition, emancipation and celebration of the diversity and pluralism of human identity. But despite this versatility the Left appears to be in worldwide retreat whilst an aggressive new ‘Alt-Right’ is taking to the internet and the streets, regurgitating a regressive and patriarchal vision of society that has already won startling political victories in the US and Europe.

Amidst the vertiginous tension of such a crisis, Michael Brie argues for an urgent theoretical and practical reorganisation of the Left. Developing the work of philosopher and social theorist Karl Polanyi, Brie advocates an alliance of socialist liberals and libertarian ‘commonists’ that unites contemporary campaigns for recognition, difference and human dignity with more traditional struggles for social welfare and economic democracy. Starting with Nancy Fraser’s critical reappraisal of Polanyi in her article A Triple Movement? Parsing the Politics of Crisis after Polanyi (included), Brie powerfully reinterprets Polanyi’s thought for present times, developing concrete proposals for a Polanyian political response to neoliberalism, an ascendent authoritarian right and the ongoing threat of global ecological disaster. Also included are two articles by Polanyi translated into English for the first time and Kari Polanyi-Levitt’s lecture at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialisation .