By: gfesadmin on February 7, 2013
In 2005 during the height of the real estate boom here in the states, my wife and I found ourselves looking for a home. With seminary coming to an end and two ministry job offers hanging in the air a move was inevitable. Our first option was taking a Sr. Pastor role at a church…
By: gfesadmin on February 7, 2013
Polanyi and the Environment Karl Polanyi’s “Great Transformation” is a critique of the, supposed, free market system. He argues that free markets aren’t free or natural, and they don’t protect those without power. His arguments were centered on economics but his logic also extends to the natural environment. Polanyi writes, The economic argument could be…
By: gfesadmin on February 6, 2013
I am reading again The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi. What Polanyi analyzes is the idea of a free market. He states bluntly that there is no such thing as a free market. Every free market economy has had to have government legislation to protect citizens from its weakness. There are labor laws to protect…
By: gfesadmin on February 6, 2013
The movie Babel, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu touches on the theme of a globalized connected world, where the innocuous (and even generous) sale of a rifle has radical ramifications for all involved across continents and cultures. Here the affluent of the first world suffer, but are able to pull themselves free by the nature…
By: gfesadmin on February 6, 2013
A couple Sundays ago I visited a large church where a young speaker spoke to thousands on the “supremacy of the gospel.” He spoke about his own living situation as an American missionary in North Africa. His family lives in an area where his children have to watch out for raw sewage in the streets…
By: gfesadmin on February 6, 2013
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By: gfesadmin on February 4, 2013
#dminlgp #polanyi #lgp2 The Political and Economic Origins of our Time by Karl Polanyi (Forward, Introduction and Chapter 1-10) This is the second book I have read during the course of my studies at GFES which has transformed my thinking and has given great perspectives of life and society. One such book was ‘A Secular…
By: gfesadmin on February 4, 2013
Karl Polanyi’s “The Great Transformation” is a clairvoyant call for India today as capitalism wields its power promising a better future. Although still nascent in comparison to western economies, the obvious social repercussions of free market capitalism for India cannot be ignored and the country must heed politically to enhance social change before it caves…
By: gfesadmin on February 3, 2013
Everything is abuzz around me as I wait to board a flight out of a very posh terminal at the Bangalore airport in southern India. This terminal would compare to any other modern airports in the western world or even surpass them in quality, ambiance and service. Just a little over a decade ago it was impossible…
By: gfesadmin on February 2, 2013
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By: gfesadmin on February 1, 2013
Reciprocity in this context is a word used in what Karl Polanyi deems as a market society where goods are traded. It is defined as the exchange of goods and services without keeping track of their exact value, but often with the expectation that their exact value will balance out over time. An example of…
By: gfesadmin on February 1, 2013
For a long time, I have been a fan of Star Trek. Through the many television renditions of the enduring story of “to boldly go where no man has gone before,” there is a constant theme – that of the future (at least on the part of the Federation) being an orderly place, a partially…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
Karl Polanyi, in the epic sweep of his work The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, sets forth an extremely timely reading of modern world history, even though he was writing in the 1940s. Polanyi’s central thesis is that the rise of democracy, the industrial revolution, capitalism, liberal economic policy and…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” I Timothy 6:10 KJV What we once held as sacred – water, air, trees, children, animals, etc., we have now turned into commodities for profit. At…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
In our city I have been increasingly aware of the importance of the workforce. Many people I know, including good friends have been laid off from work or struggle to find jobs. There have been many businesses that have opened and closed. The workforce is struggling with “labor pains”. According to a recent news article,…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
No guts… No Glory… This was the phrase used by Jack Hoffman in the season opener of “Gold Rush”, Discovery Channels number one rated reality show over the past three years. Three years ago my family and I decided to watch the pilot episode of six down on their luck family men from the Pacific…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets in Davos Switzerland to discuss the global economy and business. This year’s theme was “Dynamism and Resilience” and they sought to listen to young business entrepreneurs, the future of the world economy. But it’s last year’s theme that I find more interesting, particularly in view of this…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation presses the idea that market economy is reliant upon the social dynamics of politics, religion, and social relations. In fact, he contends that if the market economy were really free that labor and indeed humans would become commodiities and would self destruct. The book takes these basic ideas and sets them…
By: gfesadmin on January 30, 2013
Karl Polanyi, in his book The Great Transformation, theorizes that market economy is never autonomous but is influenced, if not driven, by a nation’s politics, religion, and social relations. He calls this his concept of “embeddedness.” He contends that if the economy were autonomous that humans would become commodities which would assure their destruction. So powerful…
By: gfesadmin on January 30, 2013
In 1944 economy historian Karl Polanyi published his book “Great Transformation” dealing with the social, political and economical changes that led to the increasing development of a market economy in England and Polanyi’s analysis concerning market liberation. In a journey through time, starting from the early 16th century on, Polanyi portraits the immediate circumstances that…
