Karl Polanyi: Biography Of This Austro-Hungarian Anthropologist And Economist
We owe some of the great advances in the field of anthropology in the 20th century to Karl Polanyi. This researcher addressed diverse areas of knowledge, linked to economics, anthropology and social sciences in general, and his influence on the scientific community is still present today.
Through this Karl Polanyi biography We will take a tour of the most significant events of his life and we will learn in detail about some of the most important contributions he made in different scientific disciplines throughout his career.
Karl Polanyi was born in 1886 in the city of Vienna, current capital of Austria, in the now defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire His family professed the Jewish religion and were in a good socioeconomic position. Karl’s mother, Cecile Wohl, was originally from Russia and was a respected figure among the country’s intellectual circles. For his part, his father, Michael Pollacsek, was an engineer and had his own company.
In addition, Karl had a younger brother, Michael Polanyi, who as an adult would become a respected chemist and philosopher, proof that the entire family had a devotion to knowledge.
Youth
Karl Polanyi He studied Law and Philosophy, becoming a doctor in this discipline , at the University of Budapest. During his time at university he began to feel attracted to socialist doctrines. He founded a movement, the Galilei Circle, together with his brother and other people, in which they launched proclamations in favor of the independence of Hungary, which at that time was united to Austria. Likewise, he also decided to expand his political ideas through a magazine that he edited at the university, the Sczabadgondolat.
After the outbreak of World War I, Karl Polanyi enlisted in the army as a cavalry officer With the conflict came the independence of Hungary, whose social democratic government, in 1918, was supported by Polanyi. But the joy was short-lived, because only a year later the country became one of the satellite socialist republics of the USSR, so Karl Polanyi decided to exile himself to Vienna, his hometown, now part of Austria, an independent country. .
Already back in Vienna, Karl Polanyi He met Ilona Duczynska, a communist activist, who in 1923 would become his wife Already in his new home, Polanyi began writing articles in Der Oesterreichische Volkswirt, a publication on economics in which he defended Christian socialist ideas and the Fabian Society (an English socialist movement) in opposition to the liberal Austrian School.
In line with his activism, He decided to use his own home to teach a series of workshops in which he defended the benefits of socialism in the economy Karl Polanyi was a supporter of a collectivized economic system, without reaching the centralism typical of the purest socialism. For this, Polanyi supported the municipal administrations and their power to distribute the resources of their specific area of action.
Through those workshops in which political and economic systems were discussed, he had a conflict with another famous Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, who supported liberal ideas and therefore defended ideals that clashed head-on with the approaches of Karl Polanyi.
But they were turbulent years in Europe. Fascism was beginning to appear in some countries , among them Austria, where he came to power and forced many people, including Karl Polanyi, into exile. It all started as a result of his pro-socialist writings in the magazine where he worked. He was told that he should abandon said activity. After the pressure and anticipating the situation that he was about to reach the country, Polanyi decided to move to England.
Years in London, USA and Canada
Despite the pressure he received to leave the newspaper, Karl Polanyi continued to work as an editor, this time from London, the place he chose for his new residence. This new location allowed him to delve deeper into the English socialist movements and he even participated in the creation of the book Christianity and Social Revolution, writing an article for said work whose title was The Essence of Fascism.
In addition to his work as a columnist, he also began teaching, teaching classes at the Worker Educational Association. These classes were aimed at adults from the universities of Oxford and London. Part of the lessons corresponded to the economic history of England, so it was very useful material for what would later become one of his most recognized works: The Great Transformation, a book that he would write through a Rockefeller scholarship provided by the United States. Joined.
In the year 47, Karl Polanyi He began working as a visiting professor at Columbia University, in the United States, teaching economics subjects But a problem arose: the government of that country did not grant a visa to Polanyi’s wife, due to her past as a communist revolutionary, a trend that was absolutely prohibited in the United States. Therefore they had no choice but to establish her residence in the city of Toronto, Canada.
This is how Karl Polanyi He spent his last years as a teacher, routinely moving between Toronto and New York , until he finally retired in 1953. But this did not mean the end of Karl’s activity, since the Ford Foundation financed him so that he could continue publishing works, in this case related to the economic history of ancient civilizations.
In this way and in collaboration with other researchers, Karl Polanyi was able to publish Commerce and Market in the Ancient Empires, a work that is considered the precursor of anthropological substantialist ideas. Together with his wife, he also wrote a volume about Hungarian literature in 1963. His last publications were made through the magazine Coexistencia.
Karl Polanyi He visited Hungary in 1963, more than four decades after having to leave his homeland A year later, back in Canada, he died. It was the year 1964. Some time later, in 1977, a work would be published, posthumously, called “The Sustenance of Man.” In this volume, unpublished articles and writings were compiled, most of them coming from his classes, and which were an extension of the work of Commerce and Market.
The economic vision in his works
The works of Karl Polanyi crystallized his economic and anthropological thinking. For example, in “The Great Transformation” he tries to give an explanation of the variables that led to the First World War moving from a reasonably stable period of peace to another in which social and economic crisis led the world to the two largest wars it has ever known.
Some of the concepts explored in this book are the rise of totalitarian political movements throughout Europe or the fall of the gold standard, among others. For him, economic liberalism is a mere utopia which if it had been established would have meant the collapse of the political systems of our societies.
In other of his best works, such as “Commerce and Markets in Ancient Empires” or “The Livelihood of Man”, Karl Polanyi focuses on capitalism, stating that this doctrine does not favor exchange and that it has caused the economy to separate from all other social relations, taking a dominant position in front of all of them. The way he sees economics in pre-capitalist societies is what he calls embedded economics.
Polanyi talks about three basic elements that must occur in economic exchanges, and they are reciprocity, moving resources in both directions; redistribution, transporting those resources first to the center and then outwards; and finally the exchange, which symbolizes the movements between resources that must occur between the different points of the market.
Regarding markets, Karl Polanyi establishes a differentiation between them and the commercial system itself , which would be a more modern concept that would allow the former to integrate, forming national or supranational economies. In theory, the commercial system would be regulated automatically, but the reality is that it requires the help of authorities to regulate it in a certain way.
Influence on other authors
The figure of Polanyi continues to be relevant today. Economists of our time, such as Carles Manera, affirm that his legacy must be taken into account and advocate recovering the democratic socialism that this author defended almost a century ago. Authors like Thomas Pikkety have continued the path set by Polanyi and they have extrapolated their speech to the economic conditions of today’s society.
The truth is that a figure whose work continues to have an impact despite the passing of the years, must be valued as it deserves.
