Economics and everyday life: the genesis of Karl Polanyi's thinking.
Collected papers on "The Great Transformation" and a selection of tributes to
Polanyi's wife, to whom he dedicated that work. Includes archival material on
the Polanyi's life in Vienna. Karl Polanyi believed that the greatest threat to
freedom was a poorly administered economy. His search for economic and
political institutions which reconciled society's need for freedom to develop a
moral sense with the requirements of our complex technological civilisation,
led him to believe in the possibility and necessity of an economics that was
more existential and human-centred. Part One of "Karl Polanyi in Vienna"
contains a selection of papers on re-reading "The Great Transformation" as
presented at the Fifth Karl Polanyi International Conference in Vienna.
International scholars explore pressing modern themes in the light of Polanyi's
thought, including globalisation, state privatisation, the crisis of democracy
and the urgent need to relaunch development in the Third World. Part Two
presents memories and tributes delivered to the Vienna conference on the life
and work of Ilona Duczynska, Polanyi's beloved wife.