Karl Polanyi and the Contemporary Political Crisis Also Available from Bloomsbury Politics in the Times of Indignation: The Crisis of Representative Democracy, Daniel Innerarity The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx, ed. Andrew Pendakis, Imre Szeman and Jeff Diamanti From Marx to Hegel and Back: Capitalism, Critique, and Utopia, ed. Victoria Fareld and Hannes Kuch Right-Wing Culture in Contemporary Capitalism: Regression and Hope in a Time without Future, Mathias Nilges Karl Polanyi and the Contemporary Political Crisis Transforming Market Society in the Era of Climate Change Peadar Kirby BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2021 Copyright © Peadar Kirby, 2021 Peadar Kirby has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. Cover design by Charlotte Daniels All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher Do chomhluadar éiceaphobail Chloch Shiurdáin: is uathusan a d’fhoghlaim mé regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have go leor atá sa leabhar seo agus gan iad ní bheadh leabhar mar seo scríofa agam ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. To the community of Cloughjordan ecovillage: from them I have learnt a lot of Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data what is in this book and without them I could not have written it Names: Kirby, Peadar, author. Title: Karl Polanyi and the contemporary political crisis : transforming market society in the era of climate change / Peadar Kirby. Description: New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020032046 (print) | LCCN 2020032047 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350117822 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350195394 (paperback) | ISBN 9781350117839 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781350117846 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Capitalism–Environmental aspects. | Socialism–Environmental aspects. | World politics–21st century. | Polanyi, Karl, 1886–1964. Classification: LCC HD75.6 .K564 2021 (print) | LCC HD75.6 (ebook) | DDC 335–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032046 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032047 ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-1782-2 PB: 978-1-3501-9539-4 ePDF: 978-1-3501-1783-9 eBook: 978-1-3501-1784-6 Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. Do chomhluadar éiceaphobail Chloch Shiurdáin: is uathusan a d’fhoghlaim mé go leor atá sa leabhar seo agus gan iad ní bheadh leabhar mar seo scríofa agam To the community of Cloughjordan ecovillage: from them I have learnt a lot of what is in this book and without them I could not have written it vi Contents List of figures and tables viii Foreword by President Michael D. Higgins ix Part 1 Loss of hope 1 A world in transition 3 2 Understanding the crisis 21 Part 2 An alternative future? 3 Beyond capitalism 41 4 Mapping an eco-social future 59 Part 3 From commodification to decommodification Introduction to Part Three 77 5 Fictitious commodities: Land 87 6 Fictitious commodities: Labour 103 7 Fictitious commodities: Money 121 Conclusion to Part Three 137 Part 4 Whither and how? 8 Towards a new public philosophy 143 9 Beyond market society 161 Appendix 178 Notes 183 Bibliography 218 Index 235 Figures and tables Figures 6.1 Declining taxes, 1970–2012 113 6.2 Inequality and carbon emissions 115 Tables 1.1 Share of global growth captured by income groups, 1980–2016 7 2.1 Strength of ultra-right parties in Europe, 2019 24 6.1 Decommodification index 108 Foreword by President Michael D. Higgins Economic sociologist Karl Polanyi is perhaps best known for what has been regarded as his masterpiece, The Great Transformation, in which he argued that the emergence of market-based societies in modern Europe was not inevitable but historically contingent. Polanyi was in every sense a migrant thinker. Beyond physical migration, his intellectual work moved through different movements and models but always in pursuit of a life that could be experienced with dignity for all through a shared collective will. This new book, drawing on Polanyi, is a highly timely contribution by Professor Peadar Kirby, employing many of Polanyi’s key ideas – in particular the ‘new public philosophy’ concept that emphasizes the need to overcome the current economistic prejudice which so obscures our social vision. Professor Kirby offers an alternative understanding of the economy, while elaborating on the key challenges we face as global citizens standing as we are on an existential precipice. As a survey of current discussion of responses and alternatives to our current interacting crises, this book will appeal to a much wider readership than those of us who advocate for a new eco-social paradigm of embedded social economy served by seeing the economy as instrument rather than hegemonic determinant. Peadar Kirby’s new work proposes a paradigm ‘beyond market society’, one based on human dignity, one in which the public space is recovered. It examines evidence of where paradigm change is already happening today, or envisaged – in the Green New Deal, in harnessing automation, in the new politics of mitigating gaps (e.g. gender). It offers an alternative future – a postcapitalist, eco-social future in which ‘decommodification’, ‘degrowth’ and ‘deglobalization’ all form key elements. Professor Kirby’s book will chime in harmony, too, with other substantive work by contemporary economists, such as Ian Gough and Mariana Mazzucato, and is a valuable contribution to an emerging and much-needed discourse on the interacting global crises that