ABSTRACT
Karl Polanyi’s ideology critique of the disembedded market economy is again relevant to us. Naturalizing ideologies grant markets immunity from their social contexts and consequences and disavow the political supports that had liberated them. Polanyi’s diagnosis has offered sociologists vital conceptual tools for reclaiming a critical economic sociology for a neoliberal age. Decisions must be made, though, about which of Polanyi’s several uses of the disembedded/embedded market works best in our times. This chapter will review the options and conclude with some reflections on a strategy that keeps the various meanings in play.
