=========================== HES POSTING ================== Although I agree with Perelman's recommendation of 'The Great Transformation', I object to Polanyi's main thesis. Polanyi (and Perelman) might be right that there was no market society in ancient times (or, in Polanyi's own terms, that the economy used to be embedded), but that doesn't imply that the economy has become disembedded ever since, as Polanyi argues. The question is if the transformation of the ancient into the modern economy is so great indeed. It is more convincing to state that whereas even in ancient times market forces played a role, the embeddedness of the economy didn't disappear in modern times (as Mark Granovetters 1985 article suggests): there is no need to argue that even nowadays, the economy is not isolated from the rest of society. Therefore, Polanyi's dichotomy embedded-disembedded seems to be too severe, just like the gemeinschaft-gesellschaft dichotomy that is used by the sociologists Polanyi refers to (Toennies, Maine) - in that respect, the two dichotomies are perfectly congruent. Olav Velthuis Erasmus University Rotterdam Faculty of Cultural Studies ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]