Discussing money is always accompanied by controversy as well as enchantment. Debating what money is and how it performs its main functions in the contemporary economy is fundamental to understanding the social consequences of money transformation associated with the digital revolution. This book explores the links between the current and prospective properties of money, its production, and its relationship to the concepts of value, the common good, and innovation.
Contested Money opens a debate on the role that money could play in a different paradigm based on a renewed conception of monetary properties and functions that are capable of having a positive impact on social and individual welfare. Massó outlines the fundamentals of this monetary model, which would operate as a parallel currency, where the processes of monetary and value creation are connected in a new deal between the citizen and the state, grounded on an approach of reciprocal rights and responsibilities.
This book will appeal to scholars, students, and, more broadly, readers interested in a contemporary understanding of what money is, how it is being transformed, and the role that it can play in redefining the twenty-first-century social contract.
Introduction
1. What is Money?
2. Money and Value
3. Value Creation in Market Economies
4. The Spread of Finance: Innovation, Financialization, and the Transformation of the Market Economy
5. New Forms of Creating and Storing Monetary Value
6. Towards a New Paradigm of Money
Concluding Remarks
Biography
Matilde Massó is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Communication Sciences at the A Coruña University (UDC), Spain. Her principal research interests are the transformation of money and how new narratives for innovation are shaping a new conception of the economy and its relationship with the common good. She has extensive experience in leading economic sociology research projects, specifically studies on financialization and the sociology of money and financial innovation. Recent publications include: Why Money Matters? (2023) and Economic Sociology in Europe and North America: An Exploration Based on a Systematic Review of the Literature (2023).
