Gunnar Olofsson

Embeddedness and Integration

This chapter argues for the relevance and fruitfulness of Karl Polanyi’s concept of ‘embeddedness’ for analysing societal integration on the level of social relations as well as on the level of social systems.1 It is argued that ‘embeddedness’ is the key theoretical concept in Polanyi’s classic work The Great Transformation (1944) (Block and Somers 1984: 47). Standard criticisms of Polanyi’s work say that his theories romanticize pre-market economies, and that his work is tainted by a moralizing anti-market mentality. These critiques underplay the analytical contributions of Polanyi and overemphasize the moral and political controversies surrounding his work (Olofsson 1995).

Introduction: New Thinking on Exclusion and Integration

The themes and theories of social differentiation and integration are back on the agenda. They are widely used at the policy level, for example within the European Commission and the European Union. At the same time, the classic sociological themes of Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim have been revisited in recent years by such key British sociologists as David Lockwood and Nicos Mouzelis. In both social science and the world of policy and politics, the categories of social integration and social exclusion have been widely used in the 1990s.

Inledning till Karl Polanyis "Ekonomin som inrättad process"

[The economy as instituted process] “The economy as instituted process” from 1957 is probably the second most well known text of Karl Polanyi (1886–1964) after his main work The Great Transformation from 1944. Here he explains the difference between the two meanings of the concept of economy, of economy as humans’ actual, substantial, exchange with nature and each other, and economy as a formalized way of thinking about rational optimization. Polanyi argues that the social sciences must liberate themselves from the one-sided market perspective that follows from the formal meaning, and instead starts out from the former, substantive, meaning when he develops his own concepts of how the economy really has worked in different societies throughout history. The economy appears to Polanyi as an instituted, or institutionalized, process, more or less embedded in a social fabric of other both economic and non-economic institutions. The text was written as a summarizing theoretical chapter for the book Trade and Market in the Early Empires , which Polanyi compiled together with Conrad M. Arensberg and Harry W. Pearson. The main article is introduced by the three editors’ own prologue to it, and by a new introduction by sociologists Gunnar Olofsson and Anders Hylmo. Publication history: Translation of the chapters “The economy as instituted process” and “The place of economies in societies” from Karl Polanyi, Conrad M. Arensberg & Harry W. Pearson (eds.), Trade and Market in the Early Empires. Economies in History and Theory , Free Press 1957, with a new Swedish introduction. (Published 8 June 2017) Citations: Olofsson, Gunnar & Anders Hylmo (2017) “Inledning till Karl Polanyis ‘Ekonomin som inrattad process’” (pp. 9–12), Polanyi, Karl, Conrad M. Arensberg & Harry W. Pearson (2017 [1957]) “Ekonomins plats i samhallet” (pp. 13–16), Polanyi, Karl (2017 [1957]) “Ekonomin som inrattad process”, in Arkiv. Tidskrift for samhallsanalys , issue 8, pp. 17–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.8.1”The economy as instituted process” fran 1957 torde vara den nast mest kanda texten av Karl Polanyi (1886–1964) efter hans huvudarbete Den stora omdaningen fran 1944. Har reder han ut skillnaden mellan ekonomibegreppets tva inneborder av ekonomi som manniskors faktiska, substantiella utbyte med naturen och varandra och ekonomi som ett formaliserat tankesystem for rationell optimering. Polanyi argumenterar for att samhallsvetenskapen maste frigora sig fran det ensidiga marknadsperspektiv som foljer av den formella inneborden och utgar i stallet sjalv fran den forra, substantivistiska, grundbetydelsen nar han utvecklar sina begrepp om hur ekonomin egentligen fungerat i olika samhallen genom historien. Ekonomin framstar for Polanyi som en inrattad, eller institutionaliserad, process, mer eller mindre inbaddad i en samhallelig vav av andra institutioner, ekonomiska saval som icke-ekonomiska. Texten skrevs som ett teoretiskt sammanfattande kapitel till boken Trade and Market in the Early Empires som Polanyi sammanstallde tillsammans med Conrad M. Arensberg och Harry W. Pearson. Huvudartikeln introduceras har pa svenska dels genom de tre redaktorernas egen prolog till den, dels genom en ny inledning av sociologerna Gunnar Olofsson och Anders Hylmo. (Less)

Tidskriften Zenits bokutgivning 1968-1982

[The book publishing of the journal Zenit 1968–1982] In the 1960s, Goran Therborn was a decisive force behind the reorientation of the originally syndicalist journal Zenit towards the “new left” of that decade and the founding of the “new” Zenit in 1967. In this bibliography, Gunnar Olofsson, who was also among the “refounders” of the journal, describes the background for this change in direction and the wide-ranging and influential book publishing that sprang out of the new independent journal association. It deals with both the journal’s own publishing, in different booklet series and through the publishing house Zenit forlag, and its collaboration with established publishers in the book series Zenitserien and Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels Skrifter i urval (selections from Marx and Engels) with publishing house Bo Cavefors, and TemaTeori with publishing house Raben & Sjogren. Publication history: Published original. (Published 7 October 2016) Citation: Olofsson, Gunnar (2016) “Tidskriften Zenits bokutgivning 1968–1982”, in Arkiv. Tidskrift for samhallsanalys , issue 6, pp. 109–131. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.6.6

Peter Baldwin: The Narcissism of Minor Differences. How America and Europe are Alike. An Essay in Numbers

Peter Baldwin: The Narcissism of Minor Differences. How America and Europe are Alike. An Essay in Numbers

Social exclusion, the poor and the world of work: New times, old times

ULRICH BECK, The Brave New World of Work (Polity Press, Cambridge, 2000), 202 pp., ISBN 0-7456-23980 (pb) DAVID BYRNE, Social Exclusion (Open University Press, Buckingham, 1999), 158 pp., ISBN 0-335-199755 (pb) ANTHONY GIDDENS, The Third Way and its Critics (Polity Press, Cambridge, 2000), 189 pp., ISBN 0-7456-2450-2 (pb) IAN GOUGH and GUNNAR OLOFSSON (eds), Capitalism and Social Cohesion (Macmillan, London, 1999), 211 pp., ISBN 0-333-72975-X (hb)