The three faces of the coin : a socio-economic approach to the institution of money

Burns, Tom and DeVille, Philippe and Gauci, Bernard and Baumgartner, Tom (2003): The three faces of the coin : a socio-economic approach to the institution of money. Published in: European Journal of Econimic and Social Systems , Vol. 16, No. 2 (2003): pp. 149-195.

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper develops a broad, multi-faceted approach to the socio-economics of money. The aim is to elaborate models with which to describe and analyze money and money systems in modern societies. No single theory is conceivable but a complex of interlinked theories can help us understand and explain many aspects of money: (1) money as a means to represent and communicate value; (2) money as technology (money, like other technologies such as keys, carpenter tools, automobiles, factories, and nuclear power stations, embodies in its design particular rules and collective representation(s) and is associated with a variety of techniques for using it); (3) monetary orders as socio-technical systems that are in part designed, administered and regulated (there are institutional arrangements or rule regimes -- in particular the monetary order and policy, property rights, and markets -- relating to access, control, use, and management of money and money processes); (4) multiple perspectives, meanings, and uses of money within diverse institutional domains and social settings, for instance, the universalizing qualities of money as well as its particularization in concrete social and moral settings; (5) contradictory uses and purposes of money in modern societies: among others, as a medium of exchange, as a standard or measure of value; as a basis for expanding productive capacity ("capital") or initiating projects and programs; as a source of social power. Section I examines the meaning and normative regulation of money and money uses. Section II introduces and develops the idea of money- or exchange-value as distinct from substantive-, use-, or particularistic-values, and the transformation of one type of value into another through particular institutional arrangements and processes, e.g. markets. Section III analyzes the social construction of money through complex institutional processes and the establishment and maintenance of binding definitions of the social fact or reality of money. In Section IV we consider the regulation and stabilization of money systems -- as complex, changing systems that may fail or collapse, causing widespread economic, social, and political crises. Section V provides a summary of a number of key points and

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Money, socio-economic systems
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B52 - Institutional ; Evolutionary; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates > E42 - Monetary Systems ; Standards ; Regimes ; Government and the Monetary System ; Payment Systems; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates > E40 - General; A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A14 - Sociology of Economics

References

Admassie, Y. and T. R. Burns "Property Rights Regimes: A Socio-economic Perspective." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics (SASE), Geneva, Switzerland, July, 1996. Aglietta, M. and A. Orléan 1982, La violence de la monnaie, Paris, P.U.F. Aglietta, M. and A. Orléan 2002, La monnaie entre violence et confiance, Paris, Odile Jacob Andersen, S. and T. R. Burns 1992 Societal Decision-making: Democratic Challenges to State Technocracy. Aldershot, England:Dartmouth. Baumgartner, T. and T. R. Burns 1980 "Inflation: The Outcome of Institutionalized Struggle over Income Distribution." Acta Sociologica, Vol. 23:177-186. ---------------- 1984 "Inflation, Politics, and Social Change: Institutional and Theoretical Crisis in Contemporary Economy-and-Society." J. of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 25:73-90. -----------------1982 Management Information and Accounting Systems in a Changing World. Uppsala: Uppsala: Department of Sociology Research Report. Baumgartner, T., T.R.Burns, P. DeVille 1986 The Shaping of Socio-economicSystems. Gordon & Breach: London/New York. Baumgartner, T., T. R. Burns, P. DeVille, B. Gauci, and L. D. Meeker 1981 "Inflation: Beyond Economics." In: G. E. Lasker (ed), Applied Systems and Cybernetics. Pergamon: New York and Oxford. Baumgartner, T., T. R. Burns, and B. Gauci 1981 "Actors, Games, and Inflation: A Systems Methodology." In:R.K. Ragade and J. A. Dillon (eds), Paradigms in Changing Times. Louisville, Kentucky: University of Louisville Press. Braudel, F. 1979 The Structures of Everyday Life: Civilization & Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol. I. New York: Harper & Row. Burns, T. and G.M. Stalker 1961 The Management of Innovation. New York: Barnes and Noble. Burns, T.R. 1995 "Market and Human Agency." In: Carlo Mongardini (ed),L'Individuo e il mercato. Rome: Bulzoni Editore Burns, T.R., T. Baumgartner, P. DeVille 1985 Man, Decisions, Society. Gordon & Breach: London/New York Burns, T. R. And M. Carson 2002 ”Actors, Paradigms, and Institutional Dynamics: The Theory of Social Rule Systems Applied to Radical Reforms.” In: J.R. Hollingsworth, K.H. Muller, and E.J. Hollingsworth (eds), Advancing Socio-Economics: An Institutionalist Perspective. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Burns, T.R., M. Cooper and B. Wild, 1972 "Melanesian Big Men and the Accumulation of Power." Oceania, Vol. 63:104-112. 38 Burns, T. R., P. DeVille, and H. Flam 1987 "Inflation and Distributional Struggles in Capitalist Economies: A Theoretical Framework with Applications." 1987 International J. of Social Science, No. 113. Burns, T. and T. Dietz 1992a "Cultural Evolution: Social Rule Systems, Selection, and Human Agency." International Sociology, Vol 7:250-283. ------------ 1992b "Technology, Socio-technical Systems, and Technological Development: An Evolutionary Perspective." In: M. Dierkes and U. Hoffman (eds), New Technology at the Outset: Social Forces in the Shaping of Technological Innovations. Frankfurt: Campus Sharpe. Burns, T.R. and H. Flam 1986 The Shaping of Social Organization: Social Rule Systems Theory with Applications. London: Sage Publications. Clower, R. W. 1969 Monetary Theory. London: Penguin. Codere, H. 1968 "Money-Exchange Systems and a Theory of Money." Man, Vol. 3:557-77. Davidson, P (1978), Money and the Real World, New York, Wiley. DeVille, P. and T. R. Burns 1976 "Institutional Responses to Crisis in Capitalist Development." Social Praxis, vol. 4:5-46. Dodd, N. 1994 The Sociology of Money. Cambridge: Polity Press. Friedman, M (ed.) 1956, Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, Chicago, Univ. Of Chicago Press Friedman, M. and A. J. Schwartz 1963 A Monetary History of the United States: 1867-1960. Princeton, N.J.: N.B.E.R. (Princeton University Press). Giddens, A. 1990 The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. R. A. Gordon 1974 Economic Instability and Growth: The American Record. New York. Grahl, J 1999 "Money as Sovereignty : The Economics of M. Aglietta", mimeo, Univ.of Bremen. available at (www.memo.univ-bremen.de) 28 p. Kane, E. J. 1981 "Accelerating Inflation, Technological Innovation, and the Decreasing Effectiveness of Banking Regulation." J. of Finance, vol. 36:355-367. Krishna, D. 1971 ”The Self-fulfilling Prophecy and the Nature of Society.” American Sociological Review, Vol. 36, No. 6, pp. 1104-1107 Leijonhufvud, A. 1968 Keynesian Economics and the Economics of Keynes, Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press Leijonhufvud, A. 1981 "Expectations: Policymaker's Predicament." In: Joint Economic Committee, Expectations and the Economy, 97th Congress, lst Session. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. ---------------- 1993 "Toward a Not-Too-Rational Macroeconomics." Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 60: 1-13. Luhmann, N. 1979 Trust and Power. Chichester: Wiley Machado, N. 1997 Using the Bodies of the Dead:Legal, Ethical and Organizational Dimensions of Organ Transplantation. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. 39 S. Marglin 1975 "Communication to the Socialist Colloquium of Suresnes, June, 1975. Le Nouvel Observateur. K. Marx 1973 Grundrisse. New York Merton, R.K. 1957 (1968) Social Theory and Social Structure. Glencoe, Ill: Free Press. Nelson, J. 1995 Review of V. Zelizer's The Social Meaning of Money Contemporary Sociology, pp. 382-384). Perrow, C. 1986 Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay (3rd. edition). New York: Random House. Perrow, C. 1984 Normal Accidents. New York: Basic Books. L. Pospisil 1963 The Kapauku Papuans of West New Guinea. New York. Saunders 1994 Financial Institutions Management: A Modern Perspective. Irwin. M. Sahlins, Tribesmen, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1968 R. Salisbury 1970 Vunamami. Melbourne. R. Salisbury, 1964 "Despotism and Australian Administration in the New Guinea Highlands." American Anthropologist, Vol. 66, No. 4, Pt. 2:225-239. R. Salisbury 1966 "Politics and Shell-Money Finance in New Britain." In: M. Swartz, V. Turner, and A. Tuden (eds), Political Anthropology. Chicago. Saunders, A. 1994 Financial Institutions Management: A Modern Perspective. Illinois: Irwin A. Saunders and B. Wilson, 1993 "Informed and Uninformed Depositor Runs and Panics: Evidence from the 1929-33 Period." Working Paper. New York: New York University, Salomon Center. Searle, J. 1995 The Construction of Social Reality. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. Simmel, G. 1978 The Philosophy of Money. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Testart, A.,(ed.) 2002 Aux origines de la monnaie, Paris, Errance, Tobin, J (1969), "A General Equilibrium Approach to Monetary Theory", Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 1; Todd, W. 1992 " History of and Rationales for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland." Economic Review, Vol. 28: 22-35. -------- 1994 "The Federal Reserve Board before Marriner Eccles (1931-34)." Cleveland: Rederal Reserve Bank. Cleveland, Ohio Zelizer, V. 1994 The Social Meaning of Money. New York: Basic Books