Lara Evoy
“Art as a Site of Transgression and Transformation”
I like to talk about art as a site of transgression and transformation. I believe that art is necessary and work to integrate art and art making into a broader community context. I think that relevant, excellent art practices can be transformative tools, creating positive social change. Art creates social unity by helping to break down social, economic and political barriers between people. Art is a tool for empowerment, especially to those who are disenfranchised. I see artistic projects as a catalyst for community engagement in so far as they provide a place to present and articulate ideas in alternative and innovative ways. To my work I bring an interdisciplinary approach, advocating hybridized art forms as a means to reach a wide range of viewers and foster greater understanding and partnerships between the diverse members and interests of the community.

Malcom Fairbrother
“The Hard Sell of Neoclassical Economics: Polanyi and the Potilics of NAFTA”
Leftist critics often assume that free trade agreements (FTAs) such as the WTO and NAFTA derive directly from neoclassical economic theory. But many economists themselves offer only lukewarm support for these agreements, and point out important ways in which they do not follow from a neoclassical view of trade.
To take just two leading trade economists, Jagdish Bhagwati has said “there are now many well-known free traders among economists who oppose FTAs and consider them a pox on the world trading system,” and Paul Krugman that “if economists ruled the world, there would be no need for a World Trade Organization.” From a Polanyian perspective, though, this lack of neoclassical support should not come as a shock. In The Great Transformation, “pure” self-regulating markets (i.e. those envisioned by economic liberals) do not stand much of a chance politically, since in the real world these utopian and idealized market mechanisms can never be tolerated for long, even by business. Therefore the institutions that actually become established will tend to depart from pure neoclassical theory. And the preferences of liberal intellectuals (derived from abstract theories) will count for much less than those of economic and political elites, whose perspectives on economic affairs--like those of most ordinary people--are somewhat more experiential (and interest-based) in origin. This paper will illustrate these theoretical claims by reference to the case of NAFTA. First, the paper will show how NAFTA departs from neoclassical economic theory in major ways, and was actually constructed based on a contradictory mix of neoclassical theory and a view of trade I call “mercantilist.” Second, given the minimal resonance of neoclassical economic theory with the general public, I will argue that it is the non-neoclassical portrayal of NAFTA that made it politically saleable.

Berkeley Fleming
“Towards the Communion of Humans: The
Co-Existence Project”
In this paper, I consider the conception and development of Karl Polanyi's last great project, the journal Co-Existence. The idea of a scholarly review dedicated to analyzing the problems of co-existence was raised by Polanyi in gatherings with several old friends when he visited Europe in 1960. A meeting with Erich Fromm in 1961 seems also to have encouraged him in that direction.
Polanyi's views on co-existence can be traced back to his long-standing socialist and Christian principles; his consistent arguments against economic determinism; his writing, teaching, and public lecturing on the international situation in the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s; key themes in the opening and closing pages of The Great Transformation; his mid-1940s articles on the Soviet Union and "regional planning"; and his post-Hiroshima preoccupations, as hinted at in "Our Obsolete Market Mentality" and explored in two incomplete 1950s projects, "Freedom and Technology" and "The New West".
After considering the development of Polanyi's thought in this respect, I review his attempts with others in his circle to secure co-operation and support for the Co-Existence project from East and West; to establish an editorial board; to raise funds for and solicit subscriptions to the journal; and to reach an agreement with an appropriate publisher.
My analysis is based in large part on a reading of Polanyi's extensive correspondence in the late 1950s and 1960s, and other archival materials such as Abe Rotstein's "Weekend Notes". Underlying my analysis is the argument that this endeavour was consistent with the moral and logical unity of Karl Polanyi's entire life and work.

Michael W. Flota
“Theorizing ‘Polanyi’s Revenge’: The Stalemate and Retrenchment of Financial Liberalization in Sweden and South Korea”
This paper argues that William Sewell’s notion of the duality of structure can help explain how Polanyi’s double movement plays out in real world examples. Principles from evolutionary economics, as elaborated by Geoffrey Hodgson and others, are also used to show the rise and fall of the double movement. The Swedish and South Korean experiences with financial liberalization are chosen as cases to demonstrate how this process plays out. I examine the rise and fall of financial liberalization movements in these two states, showing the Polanyian process in empirical detail as neoliberal groups use ideological warfare that ultimately falls of its own weight due to economic crisis spawned by movements toward self-regulating markets. Although the cultures and economic systems of these two states are quite dissimilar, adoption of the Polanyian framework reveals astonishing similarities in the rise and fall of neoliberalism in the two states. I develop a theory to further expand on Polanyi’s insights surrounding the double movement.