The Double Movement in Action: Karl Polanyi, Food Safety and China's Rural Transformation

This article deepens understanding of Polanyi's double movement and countermovement concepts. Through an exploratory case study of a Chinese wet-market, it interrogates a Chinese countermovement and develops an analysis on how it informs, and is informed by, a larger double movement. This article is differentiated from other attempts to deconstruct Polanyi's countermovement concept as it interrogates the unconscious countermovement. It expands Polanyian theory by proposing a mechanism by which the unconscious countermovement may lead to something conscious. The article argues that there is both an unconscious countermovement and a conscious Polanyian movement in Chinese society which look towards rural China for social protection.