University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

The great transformation refers to the genesis of market society, which roughly corresponds to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. Markets have been around since human beings began exchanging goods and services, but a market society is a relatively new phenomenon. In a market society, more and more elements of life become defined and evaluated according to supply and demand. This includes people, nature, and money. The value of people is determined by labor markets, nature by markets for resources, and money by markets for capital. Polanyi explains that many social and political conflicts, including two world wars, can be explained by analyzing how treating people, nature, and money as commodities pits people against each other and against nature and constrains the options available to governments for solving problems. Polanyi's insights are as relevant today as they were when he first wrote them in 1944. I was inspired by the book when I encountered it in my first semester as a Ph.D. student. I have assigned some or all of Polanyi's book in my classes since I first started teaching over twenty years ago.