Call for Abstracts

For a Junior Researcher Workshop hosted by the Research Group on Monetary Sovereignty on 23/24 January 2020

Prospects of Money: Theories, Developments, and Research Perspectives

Money is back on the agenda of sociology, cultural anthropology, political science, political economy, and history. Reasons for this renewed interest in one of modern societies’ most crucial institutions are manifold: the financialization of capitalism with its high-risk derivatives and monetary surrogates and the impact of financial crises; experiences of globalized flows of capital and people; the rapid and exponential growth of money supply and its influence on income and wealth distribution; the continuing tensions of the supranational common currency project “Eurozone” or between regions of the global monetary economy (some amounting to full-fletched “currency wars”); the emergence of diverse local means of payment and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Facebook’s Libra; or political movements targeting the monetary order.
In this revived research, money is usually neither examined as a neutral and technical tool for market exchange, nor in terms of wealth and prosperity (alone). Instead, it is viewed as a crucial component in the engine room of capitalist dynamics, linking economic, social, and cultural spheres.
Strikingly many more recent studies are based on theoretical reflections on the “nature” of money. It seems that the research is producing new academically and politically relevant insights, especially through the conversion of well-established concepts and the investment in new theory-led arguments and methodologies. We want to trace this nexus of ongoing transformations of monetary relations and payment practices on the one hand and theoretical innovations and controversies on the other hand with regard to consequences for the study of money and monetary economies in the future.
The call addresses junior researchers on the pre- or post-doc level who would like to present and discuss their planned, ongoing, or (recently) completed research projects on money and phenomena relevant for an understanding of the workings, tensions, and transformations of monetary orders.
Our aim is to identify shared and competing theoretical assumptions as well as compare and debate our assessments of historical and contemporary empirical phenomena and processes. We intend to create an opportunity to meet and openly discuss the different approaches and explore opportunities for future cooperation.
If you would like to participate, please send an abstract of your project idea (or paper) until 14 October 2019 to Carolin.Mueller@his-online.de and Friedo.Karth@his-online.de (up to 500 words). Travel and accommodation costs are covered for all participants selected. We will kindly ask every panelist to prepare a meaningful project exposé or draft paper to circulate within the group two weeks before the workshop. It should be long and informative enough to enable a substantial discussion of your presentation (15-20 min). For any remaining questions, feel free to contact us!

Friedo Karth, Carolin Müller, Gabriel Popham and Aaron Sahr
Research Group Monetary Sovereignty
Hamburg Institute for Social Research
Mittelweg 36
22087 Hamburg

Phone: +49 40 414097-0
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