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Money in an Actant World: Comparative Notes on Currency, Agency and Sociality

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  3. Vol. 73, Issue 1
  4. pp. 1–20

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Burger, T. Money in an Actant World: Comparative Notes on Currency, Agency and Sociality. Sociologus, 73(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.2023.1452901
Burger, Tim "Money in an Actant World: Comparative Notes on Currency, Agency and Sociality" Sociologus 73.1, 2023, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.2023.1452901
Burger, Tim (2023): Money in an Actant World: Comparative Notes on Currency, Agency and Sociality, in: Sociologus, vol. 73, iss. 1, 1-20, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.2023.1452901
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Money in an Actant World: Comparative Notes on Currency, Agency and Sociality

Burger, Tim

Sociologus, Vol. 73 (2023), Iss. 1 : pp. 1–20

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Article Details

Publisher Name
Duncker & Humblot
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.2023.1452901
Language
Multiple languages
Pages
20
Keywords

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Author Details

Tim Burger, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Theaterstraße 14, 37073 Göttingen.

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Abstract

Actor-network theory is an approach notable for distributing agency over a range of human and other-than-human actors hence questioning the existence of a given “society” and instead conceiving of materially heterogeneous collectives. So far, ANT has only shown fleeting interest in the study of money. This is surprising, given the literature emphasising the powerful, agency-bearing role ascribed to money in intersubjective relations and socioeconomic arrangements. This article reviews two ethnographic case studies to examine conceptions of sociality and agency inherent in both national currencies and actor-network theory. Based on a comparative framework, which discusses different properties of money on a commercial farm in South Africa and within a progressive political struggle in Indonesia, I argue that money’s material and semiotic properties make it unfit to be subsumed into an actant scheme. Instead, I draw attention to the circulation of currency within uneven, messy, and hierarchical postcolonial political economies as foundational to money’s agency in the making of social relations.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Tim Burger: Money in an Actant World: Comparative Notes on Currency, Agency and Sociality 1
Abstract 1
1. Introduction 1
2. Anthropology and Money 4
3. Agency and Actor-Network Theory 7
4. Cash in the South African Borderlands 10
5. Currency and Remediation in Urban Java, Indonesia 13
6. Conclusion 16
References 17

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