{"id":3798,"date":"2015-01-29T00:38:19","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T00:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=3798"},"modified":"2015-01-29T14:09:43","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T14:09:43","slug":"from-downton-abbey-to-bangkok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/from-downton-abbey-to-bangkok\/","title":{"rendered":"From Downton Abbey to Bangkok"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mast-downton-s4-series-icon-hires\"<\/a>As I read the opening chapters of The Great Transformation<\/span> images of Downton Abbey were dancing in my head. Ok, my secret is out: I\u2019m a fan. I could certainly blame my wife, but I really do enjoy it, despite its similarities to a soap opera. Set in the fictional Yorkshire estate, it depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family at the end of the Edwardian and into the post-Edwardian era. What I always find fascinating is the lives and lifestyles, the hopes and dreams of both the \u201chaves\u201d\u2014the aristocrats\u2014and the \u201chave-nots\u201d\u2014their servants. All this is played out during a backdrop of tension; there always seems to be \u201cgreat change\u201d in the air. The influence, if not status, of the royals seems to be eroding. The economy is shifting to the whims of the markets and all along the Crawleys are white-knuckled, trying to keep up with this transformation of their evolving world.<\/p>\n

Polanyi\u2019s The Great Transformation<\/span> is far less entertaining and far more technical as it surveys the impact of free or \u201cself-adjusting\u201d markets on western society, with a focus on its impact on human relationships. The author\u2019s premise is that markets disrupt social organization, and that they are not natural features of human society and therefore \u201cthe unregulated market has done tremendous damage to man, society and nature\u201d[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I need much more time to work through and understand his rationale and discern his conclusions. But for the sake of this post, I understand one of his concerns and believe it needs close attention. He argues \u201ccertain ideologies, which relate to land, labor and money, and the profit motive are required for efficient functioning of markets. In particular, both poverty, and certain amount of callousness and indifference to poverty are required for efficient functioning of markets.\u201d[2]<\/a> For example in chapter three, \u201cHabitation versus Improvement\u201d[3]<\/a> Polanyi discusses enclosures. I understand \u201cenclosures\u201d to mean property deeded to specific individuals where it was previously held in common, or held loosely by those living on or working the land. When political changes allowed land ownership to be more strictly defined and enforced, those who wrote the laws understood them better than the common man, and were able to capitalize on them to their own benefit. They controlled the land. Thus, the rich got richer; as Polanyi writes: \u201cEnclosures have appropriately been called a revolution of the rich against the poor\u201d.[4]<\/a> Add to that the dynamic of the industrial revolution where machines forever changed the way people work, earn and relate.[5]<\/a> Thus was the creation of the under-class and the upper-class.<\/p>\n

\"red_shirt_protest_bkk_09\"<\/a>I don\u2019t know what Polanyi would think of Thailand, but it\u2019s an interesting case study. In Thailand there are various seasons. The rainy season, the harvest season, and the political protest season. All too often the political and economic turmoil leads to a coup. The politics of Yellow shirts vs. Red shirts is beyond the scope of this post, but suffice to say America isn\u2019t the only politically polarized country. Yellow shirts are primarily found around Bangkok; they are more progressive, business friendly and typically more affluent and they\u2019re strong advocates of the monarchy. Red shirts are primarily the agrarians, living in the rural Thailand and their numbers far outweigh the Yellow shirts. The tension that fuels this divide is largely economic. Thailand\u2019s masses average about 300 baht a day or $10 USD a day. There are some who are insanely wealthy, as there are in any country. It\u2019s important to understand that the entire economy is shaped around 300 baht a day. People can eat, clothe and house themselves on 300 baht a day. The government provides healthcare and education. It is not the lifestyle most Westerners would prefer. These public\u00a0services would be found less than satisfactory by some\u00a0Western standards.<\/p>\n

But the system works. And what about the tension? What about the conflicts between the Yellow shirt haves and the Red shirt have-nots? That also works. Their political system is constantly flexing, constantly changing because of this tension, this unrest. When the 300 baht a day economy isn\u2019t working as it should, the pressure to change generates enough political tension to reset the government and try again; another reincarnation, often of the same old thing.<\/p>\n

Polanyi pointed to societal transformations instigated by political and economic shifts. That happens in Thailand and widely throughout Southeast Asia. The changes happen in subtle and typically gentler ways than elsewhere, probably because of the influence of the Buddhist philosophy. But that\u2019s for another post.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Asad Zaman, The Rise and Fall of the Market Economy (March 15, 2009). Review of Islamic Economics, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2010, pp. 123-155. Available at SSRN: http:\/\/ssrn.com\/abstract=2142803<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Asad Zaman, \u201cWorld Economic Association Pedagogy Blog,\u201d, accessed January 27, 2015, https:\/\/weapedagogy.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/28\/summary-of-the-great-transformation-by-polanyi\/.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: the Political and Economic Origins of Our Time<\/em>, 2nd ed. (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2001), 33-42.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 35.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 42.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I read the opening chapters of The Great Transformation images of Downton Abbey were dancing in my head. Ok, my secret is out: I\u2019m a fan. I could certainly blame my wife, but I really do enjoy it, despite its similarities to a soap opera. Set in the fictional Yorkshire estate, it depicts the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[593,591,4],"class_list":["post-3798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-downton-abbey","tag-free-markets","tag-polanyi","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3798"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3807,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798\/revisions\/3807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}