The Structural Transformation of Embeddedness

The concept of embeddedness plays a central role in the segment of economic sociology and social theory which is inspired by the works of Karl Polanyi. But to the extent that embeddedness is understood in a substantialist manner, implying the existence of a unitary lifeworld, the desire for embeddedness is an impossible aspiration under modern conditions. Throughout the modern era it is however possible to observe the emergence of complex societal stabilization mechanisms, which serve as substitutes to traditional forms of embeddedness. The emergence of function specific cultures, in the form of, for example, legal, political and scientific cultures, establishing a “second nature” in the Hegelian sense, is one example of this. Other examples are (neo-)corporatist institutions which fulfilled a central stabilizing role in classical modernity and the kind of network based governance arrangements which fulfil a similar position in today’s radicalized modernity.