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3 unusual facts about Karl Polanyi


Mark Granovetter

The concept of embeddedness originated with Karl Polanyi in his book The Great Transformation, where Polanyi posited that all economies are embedded in social relations and institutions.

Moses I. Finley

Following the example of Karl Polanyi, Finley argued that the ancient economy should not be analyzed using the concepts of modern economic science, because ancient man had no notion of the economy as a separate sphere of society, and because economic actions in antiquity were determined not primarily by economic, but by social concerns.

Soup kitchen

Social historian Karl Polanyi wrote that before markets became the world's dominant form of economic organisation in the 19th century, most human societies would generally either starve all together or not at all, because communities would naturally share their food.


Charlotte Bach

In 1968, Hajdu adopted the new role of Dr. Charlotte Bach, a supposed former lecturer at Budapest's Eötvös Loránd University, whose actual alumni included the philosophers Michael and Karl Polanyi and the mathematician John von Neumann.


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