Axel T. Paul

Money and Society (eBook, ePUB)

A Critical Companion

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

This is a comprehensive, critical introduction to the sociology of money, covering many topics, from the origins of money to its function today. Though our coins, bank notes and electronic tokens do function as means of exchange, money is in fact a social, intangible institution. This book shows that money does indeed rule the world.

Exploring the unlikely origins of money in early societies and amidst the first civilizations, the book moves onto inherent liaison with finance, including the logic of financial markets. Turning to the contemporary politics of money, monetary experiments and reform initiatives such as Bitcoin and positive money, it finally reveals the essentially monetary constitution of modern society itself.

Through criticizing the simplistic exchange paradigm of standard economics and rational choice theory, it demonstrates instead that money matters because it embodies social relations.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Pluto Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 20. November 2020
• Deutsch
• ISBN-13: 9781786807120
• Artikelnr.: 60580398

Autorenporträt

Axel T. Paul is Professor of Sociology at the University Basel, Switzerland. He has written extensively on the topics of economic sociology, historical sociology and the sociology of violence.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface
Part I: Economic Theories of Money - and Their Critiques
1. Barter, Trade and Money
2. Objective versus Subjective Theories of Value
3. The Improbability of Exchange
Part II: The Birth of Money
4. Gift-Exchanging and Ceremonial Monies
5. Money and (the End of) Violence
6. Economies of Sacrifice
7. Secrets of the Coin
III. Money and Finance
8. Time and Money
9. The Logic of Financial Markets
Part IV: The Politics of Money
10. The Fundamental Problems with Contemporary Money
11. Private Monies, or Bitcoin
12. Sovereign Money
13. Central Bank Independence and the Inescapable Politics of Money
Part V. Money and Society
14. Alienation and Freedom
15. Money and Functional Differentiation