Globalisation as a strategy of eco-social uprooting. A view from The Great Transformation

Abstract

The wide recognition of Polanyi's (1944) contributions to the study of globalisation in The Great Transformation has led us to review the timeliness of his proposal for the delegitimisation of the global market as a strategy of the powerful for the social uprooting of the economy. Our second objective will be to determine the role of internal nation-state bureaucracies in extending globalisation, applying the study to the cases of academic globalisation and global cities, which exemplify the conversion of labour and land into fictitious commodities. As a third aim, we explore through literature and communities of practice the convergent pathways of resistance to those proposed by Polanyi, driving germinal solutions or responses to the class segregation of globalisation.

We firmly uphold the validity of both Polanyi's methodologies and the primary conclusions he drew, despite the contemporary trajectory of the deregulated market that has led to financialization and uprooting scenarios beyond the scope of his original work. In this context, we shed light on the necessary complicity of national-local bureaucratic élites in the expansion of globalization, revealing the scope of their action mechanisms to bring collective goods and services of public utility into the market sphere. Additionally, we investigate the various forms of resistance against globalization, which, as potential solutions, demand a cultural and biophysical foundation for economic research to build upon. As practical solutions, we advocate for a return to the examination of the natural environment as a threatened essential habitat, while acknowledging alternative cultural practices for communal reorganization. These practices, found in both peripheral and central countries, currently offer participatory opportunities in response to the erosion of democratic processes.