Commodifying and Embedding Services of General Interests in Transnational Contexts - The Example of Healthcare Liberalisation in the EU and the WTO

Abstract

The paper employse the notions of commodification and embeddedness broadly taken from the work of Karl Polanyi as an analytical framework to discuss the changes that are associated with the liberalisation and regulation of services of general interest in transnational constellations such as the EU and the WTO and the introduction of the "market logic" in these sectors of the society. The paper makes two claims: First, it argues that the liberalisation and regulation of services of general interest were – at least conceptually – preceded by a reconstruction of these activities as marketable services. Before they could be made subject to the logic of the market economy, they had to be “commodified”. This commodification was partly a result of technological changes, but also a planned political effort. Second, employing the Polanyian concept of the "double movement" – again in a broader sense – the paper claims that the commodification and liberalisation of services of general interest gave raise to a countermovement similar to the countermovement to the construction of liberal markets in England of the 19th century. The paper focuses on attempts to re-regulate liberalised services markets and to re-embed these markets in transnational contexts.