Karl Polanyi: Whence the Marketing Mind?

What are the origins of the marketing mind? In this introductory quotation Polanyi suggests that it springs from a specifi c type of economy that diffused in nineteenth century processes of industrialization that swept the world. As such, the marketing mind is a recent historic phenomenon; this quotation seems to tell us. Rather than representing the vanguard of history, the marketing mind, the quotation also seems to tell us, is a “formidable obstacle” that possibly inhibits us from seeing how economy and sociality – our “livelihood” – potentially might be organized differently. In this chapter I will attempt to unfold Polanyi’s reasoning for being able to make such a proposition.