Karl Polanyi and the Contemporary Political Crisis

Peadar Kirby is Emeritus Professor of International Politics and Public Policy and Director of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge in Society, at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Our increasingly unstable world is not lacking contemporary examinations of the forces remaking it: the climate emergency, a crisis of economic and political legitimacy, technological transformation, and urgent debates over how we conceptualise our relationships to place, borders, social identities and each other. But few writers have been bold or skilful enough to pull these complex threads together and successfully anchor their analysis in the intellectual history of thinkers who can help us make sense of how we got here, and where we might be going next. In his vital and brilliant study of Karl Polanyi’s relevance in the 21st century, Peadar Kirby has not only achieved this but also sketched out the beginnings of the world we need to fight for.

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1: A world in transitionChapter 2: Understanding the crisisChapter 3: Identifying root causesChapter 4: Mapping a socialist futureChapter 5: Fictitious commodities: LandChapter 6: Fictitious commodities: LabourChapter 7: Fictitious commodities: MoneyChapter 8: Towards a new public philosophyChapter 9: Beyond market societyBibliographyIndex