The Contradictory Logics of Financialization

• Date: 01 March 2016
• Author: Fred Block
• Published date: 01 March 2016
• DOI: 10.1177/0032329215617462
• Subject Matter: Introduction to the Special Section

Politics & Society

2016, Vol. 44(1) 3 –13

© 2015 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/0032329215617462

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Introduction to the Special Section

The Contradictory Logics

of Financialization: Bringing

Together Hyman Minsky

and Karl Polanyi*

Fred Block

University of California, Davis

Abstract

This introduction explains the logic of bringing together the perspectives of

Hyman Minsky and Karl Polanyi to analyze processes of financialization. Although

Minsky and Polanyi have very different intellectual trajectories, there are important

complementarities in their approaches. The introduction also explains the focus of

the three papers in this special section written by Kurtulus¸ Gemici, Lucas Kirkpatrick,

and David Woodruff.

Keywords

finance, political economy, financial crises, speculation

Corresponding Author:

Fred Block, Department of Sociology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis,

CA 95616, USA.

Email: flblock@ucdavis.edu

*This is the introduction to the special section in the March 2016 issue of Politics & Society on the topic of

“The Contradictory Logics of Financialization.” The papers were originally presented at a workshop held

at the Marconi Center in Marshall, California in May 2013 that was supported by the journal and a grant

from the Ford Foundation.

617462PASXXX10.1177/0032329215617462Politics & SocietyBlock

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