Polanyi and foucault on the issue of market in classical political economy: Complementary approaches to the radical theory of social control

Guizzo, Danielle; Vigo de Lima, Iara

Abstract

© 2016 Union for Radical Political Economics. Studies have pointed out that the value of markets is related to their impact on the character of a society. Karl Polanyi’s thesis about social disembeddedness attributed to 19th century economic liberalism the responsibility for consolidating the process of separating markets from society, which changed the dynamics between the state and population when economic rationality began dictating their connections. However, Polanyi only suggested analyses regarding power relations between these three elements and their effects on the social context. This paper argues that Michel Foucault’s writings concerning technologies of power and biopolitics complement Polanyi’s considerations insofar as they provide an understanding about how biopolitics emerged and how this led to a new posture of the state regarding population care and economic environment regulation.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 11, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Dec 23, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Mar 10, 2017
• Journal: Review of Radical Political Economics
• Print ISSN: 0486-6134
• Electronic ISSN: 1552-8502
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 100-113
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0486613415621745
• Keywords: Karl Polanyi, embeddedness, classical economic liberalism, Michel Foucault, biopoliticsA14, B12, B50
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/897476
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0486613415621745
• Contract Date: Mar 10, 2017