The Contemporary Relevance of Karl Polanyi to Critical Social Enterprise Scholarship

Abstract

The importance of the work of Karl Polanyi to social enterprise scholarship is often maintained. However, explanations as to how and why his ideas are so relevant to the field are still relatively scarce. In this essay, we argue that engaging with Polanyi’s work directly, and Polanyian scholarship more widely, can provide a deep understanding of the underlying assumptions within current social enterprise conceptualizations, and provide insights into how the relative positioning of market and society may be manipulated to maintain hegemonic positions. Three of Polanyi’s key concepts are considered and discussed in turn: the ‘substantive economy’, the notion of ‘embeddedness’, and his ‘double movement’ thesis. The contemporary relevance of each concept, and the implications for future research, are presented and discussed, with a view to providing a platform from which to pursue a reinvigorated, emancipatory critical research agenda.

Keywords:

• Social enterprise
• Polanyi
• critical research

Notes

Notes

1 EMergence des Entreprises Sociales en Europe

2 See, for example, the paper by Coase (1976), which was initially presented at a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in St Andrews, Fife. The Mont Pelerin Society, of which (ironically) Polanyi’s brother Michael was a founding member, was established in 1947 by a group of prominent intellectuals and business leaders committed to the political project of returning economic liberalism to the forefront (hence ‘neoliberalism’) at a time when Keynesianism was dominant.