1st Edition

The Culture of Money Implications for Contemporary Economics

Edited By Esther Schomacher, Jan Söffner Copyright 2025
228 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

228 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

228 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

It is widely known that – at least in current societies - culture depends on money. Less attention has been given to the contrary fact: money also depends on culture. In its very foundation - negotiations, values, exchanges, debts and obligations, contracts and laws – money's functioning is tied to cultural practices, institutions, identities, and meanings. This interdisciplinary anthology... Read more

1. It’s the Culture, Stupid? Introduction

Schomacher, Esther and  Söffner, Jan

 

PART I: Lessons from Sociology

 

2. Negation and Imagination in Economic Calculus.

Baecker, Dirk

 

3. Money and Power.

Lazzarato, Maurizio

 

4.Organizations, Institutions, and the Emergence of the Economic Domain.

Leghissa, Giovanni

 

PART II: Lessons from Philosophy

 

5. Defacing the Currency! Three Philosophical Perspectives on the Relationship between Life and Money. 

Lucci, Antonio

 

6.Beyond Money: Pre-Economic “Gift” Exchange and the Post-Economy of Electronic Trade.

Resina, Joan Ramon

 

7. Bitcoin, Dirtcoin and Dirty Coins: Digging in The Foundation Pit.

Cassou-Noguès, Pierre

 

8. Economies without a Currency – Money without a Culture? Possible Futures of a Post

Banking World. 

Damiris, Niklas and  Söffner, Jan

 

PART III: Lessons from Cultural History

 

9. The Market of Love: Dating Economies from Early Modern Match Making to Tinder

Nickenig, Annika

10. The Romance of Rationality: Performing an Economic Identity in the Mean Streets of

Early Victorian London.

Münch, Ole

 

11. Who pays? On Subjects and Transactions (with a little help from W. Shakespeare and É.

Zola).

Schomacher, Esther

 

12. The Dynamics of Debt and Bankruptcy in the Dialogue of Economics

and Literature.

Ingrao, Bruna

 Index

Biography

Esther Schomacher currently holds the position of guest professor for Italian Literature at the Institute for Romance Literatures and Languages at Humboldt-University of Berlin. Previously she worked as an associate professor for Italian Literature at Ruhr-Universität Bochum University and for Cultural Studies and Cultural Analysis at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. Her research focuses on relations between literature and sciences, especially economics, on media theory, political theory, and historical Gender Studies.

Jan Söffner holds the chair for Cultural Theory and Cultural Analysis at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, where he also worked as Vice President for Teaching from 2018 to 2021. Jan earned his PhD in Italian Studies and his 'Habilitation' (second, post-doctoral dissertation) in Comparative Literature and Romance Studies. From 1999 to 2007, he was a research associate at the Department of Romance Studies at the University of Cologne; and from 2008 to 2010 he worked on the research project Emotion and Motion at the Centre for Literary and Cultural Research (Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung) in Berlin.