Austerity and Societal Response: The Double Movement in Post-Crisis Canada

Through the application of Karl Polanyi's theory of the Double Movement and his concepts of embedded and disembedded economies, the thesis evaluates the contemporary situation in Canada post global financial crisis of 2008. Post-crisis policies and actions of the federal government in the form of financial support to financial institutions, stimulus packages and the ensuing austerity measures are evaluated alongside the societal response to these actions, which is observed through anti-austerity discourse, with special reference to the Occupy Movement across Canada and the Quebec Student Movement. As a result of the high level of neo-liberal entrenchment in Canada a strong move towards re-embedding the economy within the sphere of social influence has not been able to materialize. However, the presence of these sites of resistance represents the evidence of the Double Movement and may be the leading edge of a potential swing of the pendulum towards more socio-democratic control over the economy in the future.