Full Description
The world of money is being transformed as households and organizations face changing economies, and new currencies and payment systems like Bitcoin and Apple Pay gain ground. What is money, and how do we make sense of it? Money Talks is the first book to offer a wide range of alternative and unexpected explanations of how social relations, emotions, moral concerns, and institutions shape how we create, mark, and use money. This collection brings together a stellar group of international experts from multiple disciplines--sociology, economics, history, law, anthropology, political science, and philosophy--to propose fresh explanations for money's origins, uses, effects, and future. Money Talks explores five key questions: How do social relationships, emotions, and morals shape how people account for and use their money? How do corporations infuse social meaning into their financing and investment practices? What are the historical, political, and social foundations of currencies? When does money become contested, and are there things money shouldn't buy? What is the impact of the new twenty-first-century currencies on our social relations?
At a time of growing concern over financial inequality, Money Talks overturns conventional views about money by revealing its profound social potential.
Contents
Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction Advancing Money Talks 1 Nina Bandelj, Frederick F. Wherry, and Viviana A. Zelizer PART I BEYOND FUNGIBILITY 1 Economics and the Social Meaning of Money 25 Jonathan Morduch 2 Morals and Emotions of Money 39 Nina Bandelj, Tyler Boston, Julia Elyachar, Julie Kim, Michael McBride, Zaibu Tufail, and James Owen Weatherall 3 How Relational Accounting Matters 57 Frederick F. Wherry PART II BEYOND SPECIAL MONIES 4 The Social Meaning of Credit, Value, and Finance 73 Bruce G. Carruthers 5 From Industrial Money to Generalized Capitalization 89 Simone Polillo PART III CREATING MONEY 6 The Constitutional Approach to Money: Monetary Design and the Production of the Modern World 109 Christine Desan 7 The Market Mirage 131 David Singh Grewal 8 The Macro-Social Meaning of Money: From Territorial Currencies to Global Money 145 Eric Helleiner PART IV CONTESTED MONEY 9 Money and Emotion: Win-Win Bargains, Win-Lose Contexts, and the Emotional Labor of Commercial Surrogates 161 Arlie Hochschild 10 Paid to Donate: Egg Donors, Sperm Donors, and Gendered Experiences of Bodily Commodification 171 Rene Almeling 11 Money and Family Relationships: The Biography of Transnational Money 184 Supriya Singh PART V MONEY FUTURES 12 Money Talks, Plastic Money Tattles: The New Sociability of Money 201 Alya Guseva and Akos Rona-Tas 13 Blockchains Are a Diamond's Best Friend: Zelizer for the Bitcoin Moment 215 Bill Maurer 14 Utopian Monies: Complementary Currencies, Bitcoin, and the Social Life of Money 230 Nigel Dodd Selected References on the Social Scientific Study of Money 249 Contributor Biographies 255 Index 261
