Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Karl Polanyi, The Human Factor

Icarus Films • 53m

Directed by Ilan Ziv • Documentary • 2014 • 53 minutes

Taking us on a journey from ancient Sumeria to the towers of Frankfurt, this episode of CAPITALISM argues that commercial transactions have always been embedded in social norms, and that a self-regulating market economy is in no way a natural state of human affairs. The thought of political economist Karl Polanyi, author of The Great Transformation, is central to this exploration.

Polanyi said that industrialization and the first wave of globalized economy had led to labor, money and nature being treated like commodities, with potentially disastrous results - the kind being played out on the streets of Athens, where unemployment is over 20%, neo-fascism is on the rise, and rioters face down police over harsh austerity measures that benefit foreign bankers.

Debt levels around the world are rising, and the webs of who owns whose debt are becoming ever more complex. Could the commodification of money ultimately be as disastrous - both for individuals and businesses - as floods, drought and earthquakes?

Featuring economist Kari Polanyi Levitt, political economist Abraham Rotstein, former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, among others.

Tags
abraham rotstein, athens, business, business ethics, capitalism, critical thinking and ethics, doc, economic theory, economics, economy, episode 6, europe, expository, globalization, historiography, history, homestream, icarus films, joschka fischer, kari polanyi levitt, labor and economics, labor studies, neo-fascism, ovid, philosophy, political philosophy, politics and political science, s_0037, s_0085, s_0126, s_0137, s_0166, s_0219, s_0230, s_0231, s_0263, s_0292, s_0414, s_0437, sociology, the great transformation, title_c, title_ijklm, title_k, unemployment, western europe, world history, world regions, yanis varoufakis

Up Next in Icarus Films

  • Keynes vs Hayek: A Fake Debate?
    53:30
    Keynes vs Hayek: A Fake Debate?

    Keynes vs Hayek: A Fake Debate?

    Directed by Ilan Ziv • Documentary • 2014 • 53 minutes

    KEYNES VS HAYEK: A FAKE DEBATE? delves deeply into the origins of both schools of thought, and how they were shaped by post-WWI German reparations, the Depression, and the need to rebuild industrial economies after World War II.

    Keynesians...

  • Kuxa Kanema
    52:11
    Kuxa Kanema

    Kuxa Kanema

    Directed by Margarida Cardoso • Documentary • 2003 • 52 minutes

    The first cultural act of the nascent Mozambique Government after independence in 1975 was to create the National Institute of Cinema (INC). The new president Samora Machel had a strong awareness of the power of the image, and under...

  • Last Grave at Dimbaza
    53:26
    Last Grave at Dimbaza

    Last Grave at Dimbaza

    Directed by Chris Curling and Pascoe Macfarlane • Documentary • 1974 • 55 minutes

    In 1969, a small group of South African exiles and British film students formed Morena Films in London to produce films about apartheid. By 1974, they produced one of the first, and certainly the most influential, ...

×