An Anthropology of Money

An Anthropology of Money: A Critical Introduction shows how our present monetary system was imposed by elites and how they benefit from it.

The book poses the question: how, by looking at different forms of money, can we appreciate that they have different effects? Richard Robbins and me demonstrate how modern money requires perpetual growth, an increase in inequality, environmental devastation, increasing commoditisation, and, consequently, the perpetual consumption of ever more stuff. These are not intrinsic features of money, but, rather, of debt-money.

This text shows that, through studying money in other cultures, we can have money that better serves the broader goals of society.

Author: Tim Di Muzio

Tim Di Muzio is an Associate Professor in International Relations and Global Political Economy in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong, Australia. His research focuses on issues of social and environmental justice from a critical political economy perspective.

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