Karl Polanyi introduces the concept of Embeddedness which necessarily says that it is a human tendency to determine economic decisions through social relationships, cultural values, religion and other social aspects. These are embedded with the economy but have no economic importance or relevance. He says “ Man’s economy ... is submerged in his social relationships. He does not act so as to safeguard his individual interest in the possession of material goods; he acts so as to safeguard his social standing, his social claims, his social assets. He values material goods only insofar as they serve this end. Economic system runs on noneconomic motives ”

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Although he says that the functioning of an economy cannot be disassociated from the social world in which it was embedded, but, under capitalism and neoliberal world, the economy became disembedded from society for expansion and reach. This self-regulating market controls and overpowers it. This was not a spontaneous emergence, but was a non-intentional consequence of individual action. Polanyi says that the free market reforms try to create fictitious commodities, like land, labor and money which were made, designed and maintained. This free market tries to move away from the society but another part of the society will have a counter movement by trying to re-embed the economy with society. Involving social relations/aspects can be purely on situational basis, as a defence or for a support. Economic decisions are exclusive of social and cultural constructs. It becomes difficult to unembed the social relationships from the modern economy without understanding the underlying intent and the psychology of the controlled society.