Читать книгу Karl Polanyi - Группа авторов - Страница 12

History does not repeat itself. In this sense, the current social struggles around law and order and the restructuring of society cannot be compared to the upheavals resulting from economic crisis, fascism and war which Polanyi witnessed in his time. That said, the current crisis has certainly intensified as a result of the financial crisis of 2008/9 and the subsequent compensation for private losses with public resources. After progressive forces initially formed worldwide protest movements, namely in the form of Occupy Wall Street and many others, for some time now we have been witnessing right-wing populist parties becoming stronger, illiberal democracies emerging and authoritarian regimes consolidating. Once again – as in Polanyi’s day – the failure of the free-market ideology is being followed by the reorganisation of society. The direction of this reorganisation, however, remains contested. Its potential scope ranges from a social-ecological transformation that transcends capitalism and establishes a society based on solidarity without the compulsion for growth all the way to very real developments towards an authoritarian capitalism in dynamic emerging economies, but also even within the European Union. Reactionary law-and-order concepts and the return to traditional gender relations and national identities can coincide with both neoliberal approaches and those critical of globalisation.

Karl Polanyi sought to capture such developments with the concept of the ‘double movement’ (Polanyi 1944/2001, pp. 79, 137–138, 148 ff.). In his view, social history from the 19th century onward is the result of a ‘double movement’, that is to say, one ‘movement’ through which the concept of the ‘self-regulating market’ was asserted, and a ‘counter-movement’ in which social groups and state institutions sought to protect themselves in different ways against the negative dynamics of the market economy. The fear of a commodification of land, labour, money and knowledge turns into a diffuse fear for the future. This can be harnessed to create new progressive alliances, as exemplified by Bernie Sanders in the United States and Ada Colau in Barcelona. That said, a nationalist policy of stricter border control can also be read as a reaction to the competition on global labour markets. Karl Polanyi’s integrated analysis provides inspiring starting points for reflecting on the impact of economic upheavals on political and social developments.