Karl Polanyi: The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (1944–) [EN, IT, CR, ES, BR-PT, LT, GR, PT, CN]

“In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi analyzes the economic and social changes brought about by the “great transformation” of the Industrial Revolution. His analysis explains not only the deficiencies of the self-regulating market, but the potentially dire social consequences of untempered market capitalism. New introductory material reveals the renewed importance of Polanyi’s seminal analysis in an era of globalization and free trade.”

Keywords and phrases: fascism, gold standard, Concert of Europe, economic liberalism, market economy, protectionism, laissez-faire, Industrial Revolution, Statute of Artificers, nomic, commodity money, Chartist, trade unions, token money, Adam Smith, Robert Owen, labor power, economic system, outdoor relief.

English, 2nd edition
Foreword by Joseph E. Stiglitz.
With a New Introduction by Fred Block
Publisher Beacon Press, 2001
ISBN 080705643X, 9780807056431
317 pages

Wikipedia
Publisher (EN)

The Great Transformation (English, 2nd ed., 1944/2001, 21 MB, updated on 2021-10-30)
La grande trasformazione (Italian, trans. Roberto Vigevani, 1974, added on 2021-10-30)
Velika preobrazba (Croatian, trans. Luka Marković, 1999, added on 2021-10-30)
La gran transformación (Spanish, trans. Julia Várela and Fernando Álvarez-Uría, 2000, added on 2021-10-30)
A Grande Transformação (BR-Portuguese, trans. Fanny Wrabel, 2nd ed., 2000, added on 2021-10-30)
Didžioji transformacija (Lithuanian, trans. Jūratė Musteikytėir and Rimantas Grikienis, 2002, added on 2021-10-30)
Ο μεγάλος μετασχηματισμός (Greek, trans. Κώστας Γαγανάκης, 2007, added on 2021-10-30)
A Grande Transformação (Portuguese, trans. Miguel Serras Pereira, 2012, EPUB, added on 2021-10-30)
Ju bian (Chinese, trans. Shumin Huang, 2013, added on 2021-10-30)

Adam Kuper: Culture: The Anthropologists’ Account (2000)

Suddenly culture seems to explain everything, from civil wars to financial crises and divorce rates. But when we speak of culture, what, precisely, do we mean?

Adam Kuper pursues the concept of culture from the early twentieth century debates to its adoption by American social science under the tutelage of Talcott Parsons. What follows is the story of how the idea fared within American anthropology, the discipline that took on culture as its special subject. Here we see the influence of such prominent thinkers as Clifford Geertz, David Schneider, Marshall Sahlins, and their successors, who represent the mainstream of American cultural anthropology in the second half of the twentieth century–the leading tradition in world anthropology in our day. These anthropologists put the idea of culture to the ultimate test–in detailed, empirical ethnographic studies–and Kuper’s account shows how the results raise more questions than they answer about the possibilities and validity of cultural analysis.

Written with passion and wit, Culture clarifies a crucial chapter in recent intellectual history. Adam Kuper makes the case against cultural determinism and argues that political and economic forces, social institutions, and biological processes must take their place in any complete explanation of why people think and behave as they do.

Keywords and phrases
Clifford Geertz, David Schneider, MARSHALL SAHLINS, Lono, Indonesia, Makahiki, ethnographer, abangan, Balinese, Clyde Kluckhohn, Marxist, Talcott Parsons, cockfight, Robert Lowie, Yapese, Edward Sapir, sexual intercourse, Terence Turner, Norbert Elias, Ernest Gellner

Publisher Harvard University Press, 2000
ISBN 0674004175, 9780674004177
Length 299 pages

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Suman Sahai, Prasmi Pavithran, Indrani Barpujari: Biopiracy: Imitations Not Innovations (2007)

Biopiracy, is detailed compilation of the indigenous resources of India, some of which have been the subject of controversial patents over the years. Published by Gene Campaign, a research and advocacy organization , the book is presented in a reader friendly format and includes discussions on Indigenous Knowledge as well as the on the medicinal use of each plant, taken up as a case study.

Publisher Gene Campaign, 2007
ISBN 8190100998
76 pages

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2014-8-29)