Book Review: Creating the Intellectual: Chinese Communism and the Rise of a Classification

Abstract

democracy in more humane values. The most important point of this chapter is that premise market capitalism and democracy is false. Chapter 10 broadens the Polanyian definitions of fictitious commodities. The author of this chapter proposes that, today, knowledge in some sense is available to many people, but it is valued at market prices due to an ‘institutionally regulated valuation’ (p. 192) Possible missing points of the book are the following: (1) the Polanyian concept of institution, and the differences and similarities of this concept versus other heterodox scholars; (2) the Polanyian approach to underdeveloped countries and perhaps the different effects of unregulated markets on developed countries vis-à-vis Third World countries. (A chapter on this subject would be appealing to people from Third World countries, since competitive markets negatively affect society, but some countries have much more power than others, and these powerful countries can establish different developmental policies to be favored in markets); and (3) a more concrete example of the Polanyian double movement today. In some chapters of the book, the double movement explanation is too abstract. What kind of social movement fits the Polanyian approach? The book was written before the pandemic, but other problems in the world endanger society, such as pollution, unregulated migration, and the alienation of people. For all these problems, no clear evidence indicates whether progressive movements are reacting to the benefit of the whole population or if the society has the force to do that. Luckily, the book offers a comprehensive treatment of Polanyian ideas for undergraduates, graduates, and researchers. It also offers important points for discussion, such as democracy, classes, and markets, and most importantly for me, the book sheds light on the environment, in which the possible agent of social change is operating.