Call for papers Special issue on Karl Polanyi and The Great Transformation

Call for papers about Karl Polanyi and The Great Transformation

A little over eighty years since the publication of The Great Transformation: The Economic and Political Origins of Our Time (1944), Karl Polanyi’s book offers an indispensable analytical framework for understanding today's changing world. His critique of the “self-regulating market” and his analysis of the “double movement” —marked by unchecked market expansion that triggers a protective reaction from societies— provide fundamental insights for interpreting the current cycles of globalization, social unrest, and the reconfiguration of the political and economic order..

Ola Financiera invites the international academic community to submit original contributions that, taking Polany’s work as a central axis, explore and discuss —though not limited to— the following themes: the study of global flows of capital, merchandise and labor force in the financialized capitalism of the 21st century; the (de)commodification of nature, money, and human labor in the face of the climate, financial, and social crises; price systems, volatility, and the illusion of the self-regulating market in the digital age; the role of guilds, unions, and new forms of labor association in protecting the workforce from precarity; analysis of current social movements and countermovements (populisms, neo-nationalisms, eco-activisms, feminisms) as an expression of Polanyi’s “double movement”; and the tension between hyperglobalization and demands for political and economic sovereignty.

Within this framework, we seek to publish a unique, original, and well-founded approach from the perspective of Karl Polanyi and the heterodox perspective, aiming to achieve a clearer understanding of the past and to offer a space for prospective reflection on the future in a turbulent and uncertain present. Therefore, the journal Ola Financiera cordially invites the international academic community to join us in this endeavor and participate by submitting original and unpublished articles for inclusion in our Vol. 19 No. 54, May-August 2026.