Читать книгу Karl Polanyi - Группа авторов - Страница 6

BRIGITTE AULENBACHER AND ANDREAS NOVY

Karl Polanyi was engaged as a journalist, educator and scientist and his work provides a wide range of economic, cultural, historical and anthropological perspectives on industrial civilisation and capitalist market societies. How mankind can survive both, this most pressing question of his times, has not lost its significance. This book addresses academic and non-academic audiences, strives to be of interest to those who have never heard of Karl Polanyi, but also to long-standing experts from diverse disciplines. It aims to inspire public and scientific debates as well as teaching within and beyond universities. And it seeks to give intellectual support to initiatives, movements and policymakers that strive to put the economy in its place. Such a collective effort cannot succeed without generous support.

To begin with, this book would not have been possible without the generous and ongoing support from Falter, the leading Viennese weekly and our co-editor Armin Thurnher. Originally published as a supplement to Falter, it brings together a unique combination of texts, photos and graphics. The enlarged and revised German and English book edition have maintained this light and stimulating style of a weekly.

The publication emerged in the context of the foundation of the International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS) in Vienna in 2018. IKPS, from the start, aimed to provide accessible debates on contemporary challenges, inspired by the thought of Karl Polanyi. We would like to thank the Vienna Chamber of Labour and our co-editor Markus Marterbauer for hosting and funding the inaugural conference of the IKPS as well as further activities and publications. Karl Polanyi had a strong affinity to popular education and the work of the Chamber of Labour. No other location better symbolises Polanyi’s ambition: There is the need for clear ethical and political positioning, without abdicating the necessity of gathering diverse perspectives and stimulating controversies to better grasp current problems and identify potential alternatives.

It is a great honour that Kari Polanyi Levitt accepted the invitation to co-edit the English version of the book. With her amazing work on the legacy of her father she has become a driving force of the renaissance of Polanyi’s oeuvre. As an honorary president of the International Karl Polanyi Society she has stimulated vivid and pluralist contemporary discussions in the Polanyi community without abdicating a proper reading of her father’s work. We thank her for her many inspiring ideas, her important contributions and her ongoing collaboration.

It is difficult to apply for funding for the translation of a book that is neither directed solely to an academic publication nor a broader popular segment of readers. Therefore, we would like to thank the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung and Michael Brie for their generous support. We would also like to thank Jan-Peter Herrmann and Carla Welch for facing the challenges of the academic and journalistic style of the book and providing a thoughtful and precise translation. Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to Tobias Eder and Melissa Erhardt who contributed to the copy-editing of the texts and the work on the literature.

Without all this support, it would not have been possible to publish this edition.