Karl Polanyi "The Great Transformation"

Polanyi contends that the modern market economy and the modern nation-state should be understood not as discrete elements but as the single human invention he calls the "Market Society". On a broader theoretical level, the Great Transformation argues that markets cannot solely be understood through economic theory. Rather, markets are embedded in social and political logics, which makes it necessary for economic analysts to take into account politics when trying to understand the economy. For this reason, the Great Transformation is a key work in the fields of Political Economy and International Political economy.