International Karl Polanyi Society

On January 21st, 2026 the Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professorship will be awarded for the tenth time. This semester’s Visiting Professor Wojtek Przepiórka will hold his Public Lecture in the Dachsaal at the Vienna Urania at 6pm. 

Kenyote: “Moral and social embedding of hidden online markets”

“How do people build trust and maintain cooperative relationships of exchange in anonymous online markets for illegal goods? These so-called crypto markets, hosted on the Dark Web, operate without the legal and institutional protections that usually regulate trade. Instead, they rely on a mix of formal reputation systems and informal community practices. Drawing on Karl Polanyi’s concept of embeddedness, our research shows that reputation formation in hidden online markets depends not only on self-interest but also on moral motives such as fairness and responsibility. Many traders provide feedback to maintain the collective good of trustworthy ratings. At the same time, ratings alone are not enough. Even in illegal and anonymous environments, markets remain embedded in social and moral life, which shows that cooperation can arise even where legal institutions cannot reach.“

We are looking forward to seeing many of you there and kindly ask you to register!