�The Visible God�: Money and Society
Term:
Spring 2009
Subject Code:
GANT
Course Number:
5325
This course aims to introduce students to the
various theories of money�s social power through the centuries.�
We will explore theorists who have considered money as a
sociological object�from Aristotle to Marx to Derrida. In order
to prepare students for investigating the role and use of money
in their own ethnographic research, we will attend, in
particular, to theories that focus on the relationship between
money and the construction and transgression of legal and social
borders. Money �does� many things in society that are separate
from its role in daily exchange; by way of studying typical
practices involving money such as hoarding, indebtedness, banking
and counterfeiting, we will investigate money�s impact beyond the
economic sphere within which it famously operates. Though this is
not a course in economics, we will turn to certain classic texts
in economics as they relate to conceptualizations of personhood
and sovereignty in the use and governance of money.
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