Abstract
How can we understand the relations between economic things and different forms of exchange – commodities, assets, gifts and singularities – in the contemporary economy? The decline of industrial capitalism and the emergence of new types of intangible valuables challenge our understanding of what economic life is about. Analysing economies through one dominant form of exchange risks overlooking the interplay between different types of valuables, their materiality and interactions that form the basis of value creation and exchange. In contrast, this special issue highlights the mutability of things – their capacity to take on and abandon different forms – as a precondition for economic activity. Drawing on a variety of empirical case studies of markets for seeds, grains, fish, carbon emissions and cattle, the contributions set out to trace the social biographies of economic things in, between and beyond multiple economic forms. We argue that it is the very ability of economic things to shift in and out of particular forms of exchange that enables the complex globalised economies of our time.
Item Type: | Journal article |
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Keywords: | Gifts, commodities, singularities, assets, value, forms of exchange |
Faculties: | Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Ethnology |
Research Centers: | Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) |
Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 77782 |
Date Deposited: | 03. Nov 2021, 14:35 |
Last Modified: | 03. Jan 2022, 14:00 |