Formalism vs Substantivism

The Disembedded parsimony Why might Polanyi claim that disembedded economies be less stable than embedded ones? Does a foodstuff place place place high society require a certain level of insecurity for its members? How might people find a disembedded thriftiness empowering? Can there be such a thing as a pure market placeplace society? Is marketization a helpful concept with which to understand contemporary capitalism? Industrial capitalism and machines etc were every(prenominal) part of the establishment of the market parsimoniousness. The motive of subsistence must become one of gain. The merchant makes his profits on the market and prices are allowed to regulate themselves.Such a self-regulating system of markets is what we call a market economy. The sack to this system is like the metamorphis of a caterpillar- so stark that it is around non like a unbroken process. Machines in a society transform nature into a commodity. Dalton on Polanyi Material self-gain is ins titutionally enforce In traditional bands the institutions through which goods were produced and distri buted wer embedded in an inseperable part of social institutions, and the economy manoeuvreed as by product of kinship political and religious obligations and simileships. economy is not a field of experience of which human race have always been aware. Primitive societies are gemeinchaften not gesellshaften. Hunger is not an incentive for production. Classical frugals and Marxist socialism came from the industrial revolution. Laissez faire capitalism was created in response to the need for machine technology Burling political economy deals with the visible means to mans existence Does the good have to be material in order to be in the realm of economic? Price of a ticket or the represent of someones wages are not material yet are economic.We economize between material and non material ends. Do I work over period in order to afford myself a DVD or do I refuse the overtime and have more leisure time at home with my family? Polanyi makes the distinction between economics in the substantive sense thats material, and in the formal sense- rationalizing and calculating. Polanyi says that because we have the market these both aspects come together but they wouldnt in a primitive economy. Primitives economize too. The materialness is irrelevant. economicals is the distribution of goods and services But not any goods and services, only economic ones which makes this description useless. If its to do with price systems then some societies dont have economics. frugals is the allocation of barely means to multiple ends Draws parralells with Freud and maximizing by sacrificing pleasure for future gain. We need to escape the notion of economic as involved with the material , in order to move on with the discussions. Cook Love distorts indeed, but hate distorts even moreSubstantivist theory built around the market and pre-market societies. Now the pre-market so cieties are almost extinct. Dalton- the section being dominated by the market principle is becoming enlarged. Bohannan- transitional and peasant economies are mentioned. Frank knight and merville herskovitz debate- herskovitz didnt understand the economic man. Romantic anti-market syndrome Polanyi-primitive societies, reciprocity and redistribution- alledgedly a conflict-free model. Le Clair- wherefore is there a felt need for a substantivist definition of economics.Polanyi and Dalton- scarcity is solely a function of social ecesis Anti market ideology. Go against the scientific method of enquiry- test and dismiss Dalton Economic theory cannot be applied to primitive economies Economic theory was influenced by factory industrialism and market organization. The market continues outside of market places in the west It is market organization that compels its participants to seek material self-gain each must sell something of market value to acquire the material means of existence.Bac k in the 19th century the economy was a cohesive entity apart from other subsystems in society. Neither government, family or religion controlled market organization. They did apparently affect supply and demand though (eg more fish in catholic countries). When market organization is economy wide it creates a market society in the sense that social organization has to change to market needs to allow the sustained provision of material goods and of money incomes with which to acquire goods. A market economy can only exist in a market society society itself is subordinated to the laws of the market- Polanyi (e. g when labourers wages drop they look for work elsewhere and migrate, so location of population conforms to market registered needs for labour) The market economy is highly decentralized, and this reinforces the atomistic view of society as simply an sum total of self-interested individuals. William Townsend- hunger makes people workMalthus- natural fertility of humans makes food scarce and population growth brought approximately wages. Mans existence requires material sustenance, but not unlimited wants, this is product of social organization. Economic in the substantive sense provision of material goods which satisfy biological and social wants. Economic in the formalist sense is described by the terms economical and economizing. Denotes a set of rules designed to maximize the effect of some end or to minimize the expenditure of some means.Substantivists believe that all places have an economy, but formalists believe that all places economize. In primitive economies people do not want profit. Where money is use in a primitive economy, it is not all-purpose money. -cattle/bridewealth. Market economy is unicentric because of the wide variety of material items and labour transacted in the sphere of market exchange. In contrast, primitive economy is multicentric and the dominant centres are create through nonmarket patterns of intergration such as rec iprocity and redistribution.What is a money economy to an anthropologist appears as a market economy to an economist. In primitive economy the basic institutional precondition is absent, the bulk of material income is not derived from, and therefore does not depend on market sales of output. Firth in NG-There is no final standard of the value of individual things, and you cant make everything have a value in relation to one thing as there are many types of exchange.In primitive societies there are no penalties for non-repayment of loans. Primitive economy is different from market industrialism not in degree but in kind. Cancian Considers the two sides of the argument Formalists- even if a man is maximizing using only the scarcity of his human faculty it is still maximizing. So he is economizing. Its wrong to reject the strategy before trying to symmetricalness the equation. Burling-economic anthropology should be the search for the multiple actors that people maximize. t