{"id":395,"date":"2014-01-31T15:32:32","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T15:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=395"},"modified":"2014-08-12T23:04:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T23:04:46","slug":"transformation-history-our-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/transformation-history-our-world\/","title":{"rendered":"TRANSFORMATION – HISTORY – OUR WORLD"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the LGP4 cohort\u2019s synchronous chat, it was noted by Jason Clark, cohort lead mentor, that reading\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Great Transformation<\/em>,\u00a0The Political and Economic Origins of our Time<\/em>,[1]<\/a>\u00a0would give insight into \u201chow capitalism came to be and how it shapes social life\u2026 i.e. economic history.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0It was clear in the initial reading, as I perused the introduction, contents, and chapter summaries that it would be a good idea, in view of the intense scholarly content, \u00a0to focus my reading as suggested by Jason. Written in 1944, it would be easy to dismiss Polanyi\u2019s thinking, however, it is written in historical context and as such, the knowledge of the events he writes about are clear. It only remains to understand or interpret the events in terms of when they occurred historically and what it means today. \u201cIt [The Great Transformation]<\/em>\u00a0is indispensable for understanding the dilemmas facing global society at the beginning of the twenty-first century.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

I found the \u201cForward\u201d by Joseph E. Stiglitz and the \u201cIntroduction\u201d by Fred Block to be essential in providing an overview of the book. Polanyi\u2019s presentation and interpretation of the transition from the feudal and the guild system to the industrial age is fascinating. \u00a0The industrial revolution is the great transformation. In the first sentence Polanyi states the era in history he writes about and the broad overarching purpose of his writing. He states, \u201cNineteenth-century civilization has collapsed. This book is concerned with the political and economic origins of this event, as well as with the great transformation which it ushered in.\u201d[4]<\/a>It is a history of society from the beginning of the industrial revolution, the early nineteenth century to the conditions leading to the First World War and the economic collapse of the great depression of the nineteen thirties. Polanyi maps out political events and economic conditions that affect the well-being, security, and freedom of people.<\/p>\n

Becoming acquainted with Polanyi\u2019s work, reminded me of another great classic concerning social\/political historical transition. In the introductory chapter of his book\u00a0Post-Capitalist Society<\/em>, Peter Drucker refers to \u201cThe Transformation,\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0not Polanyi\u2019s nineteenth century but the transition into the twenty-first century. He states, \u201cEvery few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. We cross \u2026 a \u2018divide.\u2019 Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself \u2013 its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions. Fifty years later, there is a new world.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0Similar to Polanyi, Drucker could say. \u201cTwentieth century civilization has collapsed.\u201d Drucker, curiously, dates the present \u201ctransformation\u201d from a capital to a knowledge based society as beginning with the GI education bill following World War II. That would place us near the end of the present transition. However, It is true that much of what Polanyi and Drucker write about is playing out in dramatic fashion in our current economic\/social\/political situation.<\/p>\n

I grasp that Polanyi\u2019s work relates to what is happening in our current political environment and, perhaps to a much greater extent in my own understanding, I see the political positioning (sometimes ranting, almost always rhetorical) that is taking place on social concerns and issues in places of political power and in the struggles occurring in the workplace today. Discussions on free trade, minimum wage, the movement of people (immigration), and the amount of intervention\/control by government along with a host of other political issues all relate to\u00a0The Great Transformation<\/em>\u00a0that is taking place.<\/p>\n

My pursing of this great classic (while spending a lot of time reading in chapters 4-7 on the origin of capitalism) has instilled a desire to dig deeper and to seek more in understanding the historical transformations that have taken place, and to learn from history (to perhaps not repeat history). I do not intend to be an economist nor a politician, but I do intend to be an \u201cambassador\u201d \u2013 and a good ambassador for the Lord; to do so I must strive to understand better how globalization impacts the world where I live. We have the poor, the diseased, the harassed, the helpless; Jesus said they are like \u201csheep without a shepherd\u201d (Matt. 9:36. I take seriously Jesus\u2019 command to the disciples in that day and by implication to disciples today; \u201cDo something!\u201d<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a>\u00a0Karl Polanyi,\u00a0The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our time<\/em>\u00a0(Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2001\u00a02nd ed.).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a>\u00a0Andy Campbell, \u201cLGP4-Mod2-Jan13-chat.pdf\u201d downloaded from\u00a0Archive \u2013 LGP4 DMin Mod2<\/em>, Jan. 13, 2014, comment by Jason Clark.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a>\u00a0Polanyi, Ibid., loc. 274<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4]<\/a>\u00a0Polanyi, 3.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[5]<\/a>\u00a0Peter F. Drucker,\u00a0Post-Capatalist Socieny<\/em>\u00a0(New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993), 1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the LGP4 cohort\u2019s synchronous chat, it was noted by Jason Clark, cohort lead mentor, that reading\u00a0The\u00a0Great Transformation,\u00a0The Political and Economic Origins of our Time,[1]\u00a0would give insight into \u201chow capitalism came to be and how it shapes social life\u2026 i.e. economic history.\u201d[2]\u00a0It was clear in the initial reading, as I perused the introduction, contents, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"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":[2,4],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-polanyi","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1720,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions\/1720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}