The inspiration for this study was the work of Karl Polanyi. The study therefore looks to an economics of which market economy is only part of a special case. On the basis of evidence from economic historians and economic anthropologists, it seeks to show that the wider economics of Polanyi can be given a unified basis that operates equally in simple and complex communities, ancient and modern communities, and in communities on either side of the "great transformation". A first charge on economic surplus is invariably the resources to perpetuate the social structure itself, and may be a charge so large as to exhaust almost all of the surplus and so variable in its expression that the charge on resources often passes unnoticed or is mistaken as irrational and non-economic. In its particulars, this study examines social, cultural and political determinants of economic activity from a selection of social systems and historical periods. It argues for a much expanded analytical framework than that of market-focussed theory. It draws attention to rarely noticed contributions by earlier writers, notably Carl Menger, and to important contemporary contributions by the substantivist school in economic anthropology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.77165 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Mendell, Marguerite, 1947- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Economics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000158007, proquestno: AAINK64606, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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