Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) was an anomaly among economists. He considered himself an economic anthropologist. What may seem like an oxymoron in some circles seemed perfectly logical to him. Traditionally, economists in general have explained the world in theory (other things being equal) and thus in isolation from social factors. In fact, the advent of international political economy and those who followed it was seen as slightly revolutionary. Not many scholars do work in, for example, sociological economics, philosophical economics or cultural economics, though research in these areas has been extant for some time.