Western Capitalism in Transition. Global Processes, Local Challenges. In A. Andreotti, D. Benassi, & Y. Kazepov (a cura di), Western Capitalism in Transition. Global Processes, Local Challenges (pp. 3-27). Manchester : Manchester University Press., 2018
Capitalism is not merely a way of organising production and consumption based on the private owne... more Capitalism is not merely a way of organising production and consumption based on the private ownership of the means of production, driven by alleged natural human behaviour (selfishness, self-interest) and aimed at maximising profit. The sociological understanding of capitalism defines it as a model for the structure of the whole of society, where economic momentum is ‘only’ one of the aspects of such a structure.
In this introduction we draw an interpretative framework of the dynamic
of capitalism based on Karl Polanyi’s theory of the embeddedness of the ‘economic’ in the ‘social’.1 As Polanyi maintains, economic processes (i.e. the production of what is necessary for the subsistence of human beings) are made possible by a specific combination of political, cultural and economic institutions. This combination is always in a dynamic equilibrium as societies go through a constant and restless process of change during which social institutions are recombined into novel forms and constellations. This process, however, is neither homogeneous nor linear, and is very much influenced
by the role the different institutions play, their complementarities and
their synergistic effects. Indeed, this mix affects the direction and speed of change; the winners and losers and the overall patterns of inequality that stratify different societies (Milanovic 2016).
Following Polanyi, and the use that Enzo Mingione has made of Polanyi’s work in recent decades (1991, 1997 and in this volume), we argue that changes in capitalist societies are characterised by a dynamic double movement.
During periods of predominance for market-driven mechanisms in
the allocation of resources, economic relations tend to dis-embed from their social foundations, meaning that the logic of economic behaviour is separated from its roots. This separation is not sustainable in the long run, and in causing various negative consequences, it triggers a counter-movement that gives momentum to a phase of re-embeddedness of economic activities into a stronger societal steering framework. It is within this double movement that we think we can understand how socio-economic tensions arise, how capitalism is transformed, and how social change is produced.
This introductory chapter is organised into four parts. The first part illustrates the social foundations of capitalism and puts forward the argument that there is a constant tension between dis-embedding and re-embedding mechanisms of economic activity into a less commodified society. The second part deals with the transformations that Western capitalist societies are undergoing, and how the double movement operates. We highlight how the socio-economic and institutional complementarities that characterised post-war capitalism created relatively integrated socio-economic regimes, which have been inherently challenged since the 1970s. The third part addresses the relevant role played by the increased mobility of capital, work and goods in this process, underlining their crucial destabilising impact on contemporary fragmented capitalism. We will not make predictions
about the directions of change or even the end of capitalism. Capitalism
has proved to be very flexible and adaptable to the most diverse situations (Peck and Theodore 2007; Wallerstein et al. 2013; Calhoun et al. 2016). We will try to interpret the double movement that is occurring in contemporary Western capitalisms as a framework for understanding and reading the essays included in this book. The fourth part addresses the structure of this book, and explains how the different chapters are related and how they can be framed in the Polanyian double movement.
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cittadina, metropolitana, regionale e macro-regionale. Da qualsiasi
punto di vista la si osservi, è al centro di un’importante area economica
e sembra oggi vivere un nuovo rinascimento. Che cosa accade oggi a
Milano? In che misura le forme della governance urbana incidono sulle
trasformazioni della città e dei servizi alla popolazione? Questo volume
vuole essere un contributo utile per capire come sono stati gestiti
alcuni dei cambiamenti che hanno segnato la città nella transizione al
nuovo millennio. Gli studiosi che vi hanno contribuito si interrogano su
quali attori pubblici e privati, attraverso quali strumenti, con quali
continuità e discontinuità abbiano operato, e soprattutto sul tipo di
relazioni che si sono sviluppate all'interno di diversi ambiti: sicurezza,
assistenza sociale, pianificazione urbanistica, servizi di pubblica utilità,
fino a settori economici particolarmente rappresentativi del contesto
milanese, come la moda e l’economia della collaborazione. È così
possibile ricostruire sia dinamiche di sviluppo che hanno attraversato
Milano e che sono tipiche delle città europee, sia dinamiche più
specifiche legate alla storia e alle caratteristiche della città. Per questa
via si sottopone a verifica empirica l’idea della debolezza o della forza
della capacità di governo e del suo cambiamento nel tempo,
evidenziando una rinnovata capacità di guida e direzione.
In this introduction we draw an interpretative framework of the dynamic
of capitalism based on Karl Polanyi’s theory of the embeddedness of the ‘economic’ in the ‘social’.1 As Polanyi maintains, economic processes (i.e. the production of what is necessary for the subsistence of human beings) are made possible by a specific combination of political, cultural and economic institutions. This combination is always in a dynamic equilibrium as societies go through a constant and restless process of change during which social institutions are recombined into novel forms and constellations. This process, however, is neither homogeneous nor linear, and is very much influenced
by the role the different institutions play, their complementarities and
their synergistic effects. Indeed, this mix affects the direction and speed of change; the winners and losers and the overall patterns of inequality that stratify different societies (Milanovic 2016).
Following Polanyi, and the use that Enzo Mingione has made of Polanyi’s work in recent decades (1991, 1997 and in this volume), we argue that changes in capitalist societies are characterised by a dynamic double movement.
During periods of predominance for market-driven mechanisms in
the allocation of resources, economic relations tend to dis-embed from their social foundations, meaning that the logic of economic behaviour is separated from its roots. This separation is not sustainable in the long run, and in causing various negative consequences, it triggers a counter-movement that gives momentum to a phase of re-embeddedness of economic activities into a stronger societal steering framework. It is within this double movement that we think we can understand how socio-economic tensions arise, how capitalism is transformed, and how social change is produced.
This introductory chapter is organised into four parts. The first part illustrates the social foundations of capitalism and puts forward the argument that there is a constant tension between dis-embedding and re-embedding mechanisms of economic activity into a less commodified society. The second part deals with the transformations that Western capitalist societies are undergoing, and how the double movement operates. We highlight how the socio-economic and institutional complementarities that characterised post-war capitalism created relatively integrated socio-economic regimes, which have been inherently challenged since the 1970s. The third part addresses the relevant role played by the increased mobility of capital, work and goods in this process, underlining their crucial destabilising impact on contemporary fragmented capitalism. We will not make predictions
about the directions of change or even the end of capitalism. Capitalism
has proved to be very flexible and adaptable to the most diverse situations (Peck and Theodore 2007; Wallerstein et al. 2013; Calhoun et al. 2016). We will try to interpret the double movement that is occurring in contemporary Western capitalisms as a framework for understanding and reading the essays included in this book. The fourth part addresses the structure of this book, and explains how the different chapters are related and how they can be framed in the Polanyian double movement.
Avec les processus de mondialisation, des groupes sociaux développent des mobilités transnationales (immigrants ou élites par exemple). Les cadres supérieurs forment un groupe susceptible de tirer avantage de ces dynamiques. L’ouvrage montre que malgré ces mobilités, les cadres supérieurs étudiés à Paris, Lyon, Milan et Madrid, demeurent profondément ancrés dans leurs quartiers et leurs villes. Leurs choix résidentiels sont marqués par des héritages et des liens familiaux et amicaux qui demeurent très structurants. La mobilité transnationale et très inégale, beaucoup bougent peu et lorsqu’ils sont mobiles, ils ne vont pas très loin, pour des périodes limitées et ils reviennent souvent à leur point de départ, d’où l’idée d’exit partiel de la société (et non pas le départ) : ceux qui partent accumulent des ressources et des expériences et reviennent dans leur société, souvent leur ville d’origine, soit une forme de transnationalisation avec un filet de sécurité. Enfin en termes de représentation, dans les quatre villes, les cadres supérieurs se représentent comme l’avant garde la mondialisation et développent pour eux et surtout pour les enfants des stratégies pour s’adapter. Les plus mobiles demeurent très enracinés mais se distinguent clairement des cadres supérieurs qui ne voyagent pas, d’où l’hypothèse de l’émergence d’une espèce de classe de cadres supérieurs européens mobiles qui partage des pratiques et des
valeurs.
Presents new empirical evidence collected through an original comparative research about professionals and managers in four European cities in three countries
Features an innovative combination of approaches, methods, and techniques in its analyses of European post-national societies
Reveals how segments of Europe’s urban population are adopting “exit” or “partial exit” strategies in respect to the nation state
Utilises approaches from classic urban sociology, globalization and mobility studies, and spatial class analysis
Includes in depth interviews, social networking techniques, and classic questions of political representation and values
Papers
cittadina, metropolitana, regionale e macro-regionale. Da qualsiasi
punto di vista la si osservi, è al centro di un’importante area economica
e sembra oggi vivere un nuovo rinascimento. Che cosa accade oggi a
Milano? In che misura le forme della governance urbana incidono sulle
trasformazioni della città e dei servizi alla popolazione? Questo volume
vuole essere un contributo utile per capire come sono stati gestiti
alcuni dei cambiamenti che hanno segnato la città nella transizione al
nuovo millennio. Gli studiosi che vi hanno contribuito si interrogano su
quali attori pubblici e privati, attraverso quali strumenti, con quali
continuità e discontinuità abbiano operato, e soprattutto sul tipo di
relazioni che si sono sviluppate all'interno di diversi ambiti: sicurezza,
assistenza sociale, pianificazione urbanistica, servizi di pubblica utilità,
fino a settori economici particolarmente rappresentativi del contesto
milanese, come la moda e l’economia della collaborazione. È così
possibile ricostruire sia dinamiche di sviluppo che hanno attraversato
Milano e che sono tipiche delle città europee, sia dinamiche più
specifiche legate alla storia e alle caratteristiche della città. Per questa
via si sottopone a verifica empirica l’idea della debolezza o della forza
della capacità di governo e del suo cambiamento nel tempo,
evidenziando una rinnovata capacità di guida e direzione.
In this introduction we draw an interpretative framework of the dynamic
of capitalism based on Karl Polanyi’s theory of the embeddedness of the ‘economic’ in the ‘social’.1 As Polanyi maintains, economic processes (i.e. the production of what is necessary for the subsistence of human beings) are made possible by a specific combination of political, cultural and economic institutions. This combination is always in a dynamic equilibrium as societies go through a constant and restless process of change during which social institutions are recombined into novel forms and constellations. This process, however, is neither homogeneous nor linear, and is very much influenced
by the role the different institutions play, their complementarities and
their synergistic effects. Indeed, this mix affects the direction and speed of change; the winners and losers and the overall patterns of inequality that stratify different societies (Milanovic 2016).
Following Polanyi, and the use that Enzo Mingione has made of Polanyi’s work in recent decades (1991, 1997 and in this volume), we argue that changes in capitalist societies are characterised by a dynamic double movement.
During periods of predominance for market-driven mechanisms in
the allocation of resources, economic relations tend to dis-embed from their social foundations, meaning that the logic of economic behaviour is separated from its roots. This separation is not sustainable in the long run, and in causing various negative consequences, it triggers a counter-movement that gives momentum to a phase of re-embeddedness of economic activities into a stronger societal steering framework. It is within this double movement that we think we can understand how socio-economic tensions arise, how capitalism is transformed, and how social change is produced.
This introductory chapter is organised into four parts. The first part illustrates the social foundations of capitalism and puts forward the argument that there is a constant tension between dis-embedding and re-embedding mechanisms of economic activity into a less commodified society. The second part deals with the transformations that Western capitalist societies are undergoing, and how the double movement operates. We highlight how the socio-economic and institutional complementarities that characterised post-war capitalism created relatively integrated socio-economic regimes, which have been inherently challenged since the 1970s. The third part addresses the relevant role played by the increased mobility of capital, work and goods in this process, underlining their crucial destabilising impact on contemporary fragmented capitalism. We will not make predictions
about the directions of change or even the end of capitalism. Capitalism
has proved to be very flexible and adaptable to the most diverse situations (Peck and Theodore 2007; Wallerstein et al. 2013; Calhoun et al. 2016). We will try to interpret the double movement that is occurring in contemporary Western capitalisms as a framework for understanding and reading the essays included in this book. The fourth part addresses the structure of this book, and explains how the different chapters are related and how they can be framed in the Polanyian double movement.
Avec les processus de mondialisation, des groupes sociaux développent des mobilités transnationales (immigrants ou élites par exemple). Les cadres supérieurs forment un groupe susceptible de tirer avantage de ces dynamiques. L’ouvrage montre que malgré ces mobilités, les cadres supérieurs étudiés à Paris, Lyon, Milan et Madrid, demeurent profondément ancrés dans leurs quartiers et leurs villes. Leurs choix résidentiels sont marqués par des héritages et des liens familiaux et amicaux qui demeurent très structurants. La mobilité transnationale et très inégale, beaucoup bougent peu et lorsqu’ils sont mobiles, ils ne vont pas très loin, pour des périodes limitées et ils reviennent souvent à leur point de départ, d’où l’idée d’exit partiel de la société (et non pas le départ) : ceux qui partent accumulent des ressources et des expériences et reviennent dans leur société, souvent leur ville d’origine, soit une forme de transnationalisation avec un filet de sécurité. Enfin en termes de représentation, dans les quatre villes, les cadres supérieurs se représentent comme l’avant garde la mondialisation et développent pour eux et surtout pour les enfants des stratégies pour s’adapter. Les plus mobiles demeurent très enracinés mais se distinguent clairement des cadres supérieurs qui ne voyagent pas, d’où l’hypothèse de l’émergence d’une espèce de classe de cadres supérieurs européens mobiles qui partage des pratiques et des
valeurs.
Presents new empirical evidence collected through an original comparative research about professionals and managers in four European cities in three countries
Features an innovative combination of approaches, methods, and techniques in its analyses of European post-national societies
Reveals how segments of Europe’s urban population are adopting “exit” or “partial exit” strategies in respect to the nation state
Utilises approaches from classic urban sociology, globalization and mobility studies, and spatial class analysis
Includes in depth interviews, social networking techniques, and classic questions of political representation and values
Organizers: Alberta Andreotti and Valentina Pacetti
alberta.andreotti@unimib.it; valentina.pacetti@unimib.it
this session is oriented to analyse and discuss in comparative perspective the following issues:
• Urban regulation through formal and informal networks: people’s networks in and through the organizations in the social/economic/political metropolitan environment;
• Old and new networks: the transition from traditional models (“industrial districts”, “flexible specialization”, “diversified quality production”, “world of production”, etc.) to new forms of clustering centred in the city;
• The role of the city in structuring networks of firms and network of people; relations inside the networks: hierarchical rather than horizontal interactions; formal rather than informal ones; longer rather than shorter relations;
• The formal and informal regulation (or non-regulation) of sharing economy practices in the city. What kind of regulation and what consequences for the population(s) and for the different social groups within the city.
Results show that boards of local public companies are mainly composed by middle-aged, educated men, a relatively homogeneous and compact social group, although not particularly dense. Politicians represent only one third of the board members, while the remaining members are managers and professionals issued by the civil society. The analysis of the network structure allowed us to identify a “core élite” made of politicians who are in the most powerful positions in structural terms, and who mainly work in the transport mobility sector, pushing the development of the city in that direction. Finally, the diachronic analysis highlighted that the advent of the left-wing government, after fifteen years of right-wing government, affected the cohesion of the past networks resulting in a major fragmentation of the network structure.
economia e società: non si possono capire i fenomeni economici a prescindere dagli
elementi sociali dentro i quali essi prendono forma. Egli si pone dunque nel solco
della tradizione dei classici della sociologia economica, da Weber (si veda il cap. 1)
a Simmel (si veda il cap. 4). Le azioni economiche sono intrise di motivazioni sociali
e le istituzioni economiche, che sono prima di tutto istituzioni sociali, si fondano
su processi storici di lungo periodo plasmati da azioni individuali e collettive non necessariamente
(quasi mai) basate su considerazioni di efficienza economica. Alla base
del concetto di radicamento che Granovetter propone vi è un modo specifico di interpretare
i fenomeni economici: essi non sono mai scissi dalla struttura sociale, è
proprio la relazione tra economia e struttura sociale a dover essere indagata. Tutti i
suoi lavori insistono sul fatto che gli attori, individuali e collettivi, non agiscono in
un vacuum istituzionale (2017), ma all’interno di una struttura sociale pregressa. In
questa impostazione, le reti sono un elemento centrale della struttura sociale e contribuiscono
a spiegare il rapporto tra azione individuale e istituzioni. Questo approccio
teorico richiede, secondo Granovetter, una varietà di metodi di indagine che includono
«un accurato lavoro storico, culturale, a volte etnografico, in aggiunta ai più tradizionali
metodi di analisi statistica» (2017, p. 204).