What is Polanyis central thesis in The Great Transformation Define Essay

What is Polanyis central thesis in The Great Transformation Define double move- ment - Essay Example Unlike after the great evolution, people premised their economies on trade and redistribution of resources but paid little attention on the vital rational utility exploiters. Polanyi notes that following the great revolution of the market society, members of different societies became more level-headed when making economic decisions (Deutschmann, 2009). They started being guided by pointers of neoclassical economic concepts. The establishment of capitalist structures not only transformed the legal regime along those lines but also substantially changed various economic mentalities of members of various societies such that in the run-up to the revolution, markets contributed very minimally in shaping the trends of human affairs. However, they could not fix prices because they lacked the influence that comes with big movements. As Deutschmann (2009) noted, it was just after the establishment of new market structures and the growth of industries that the theory of humanitys penchant for trade became common. The transformation contributed immensely towards shaping human culture to be in line with the then existing market-based economic agents. Polanyi thus suggests a different ethnographic theory known as substantivism which discredits formalism as a way of achieving the great transformation. Double movement is a phrase coined by Polanyi in reference to unpredictable protective responses against declining market forces occasioned by social factors within countries (Polanyi, 2001). Recent Occupy Wall Street protests by local communities seeking to outmanoeuvre powerful forces behind inequalities in the world and the more powerful social movements which threaten to reverse the prevailing paradigm by creating new structures and processes that can offset the social and economic establishment are the impact of double movement actions (Polanyi, 2001). Whereas the