Anush Kapadia: A political theory of money
Book launch
17:30-19.00
Friday 15 March 2024
Rhind Building D220
St John Street
London EC1R 0JD
Join FSN and the City Political Economy Research Centre (CITYPERC) to discuss the nature of money with Anush Kapadia, author of the new book, A Political Theory of Money. Sahil Dutta will act as discussant.
Understanding money’s nature as political, institutional, and material answers today’s big money questions. Money remains a foundational question of social theory. What is money? Why does something so insubstantial have value? How do money systems make promises function like valuable things? Why are money systems always hierarchical yet variable? The answer, the book argues, is politics. Money is institutionalised social power. Politics generates institutions that differentially lock into the future product of political and economic collectives. Money emerges from the institutionalisation of social antagonisms to encapsulate a collective’s productive potential in a flexible, tradable instrument. This takes a system. Money is built in hierarchical layers out of the inherently variable material of politics and at various economic scales. This book outlines these variable processes theoretically and through case studies.
The event is free and open to all. Please register to attend here: https://www.city.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/2024/march/book-launch-a-political-theory-of-money
Speakers
Anush Kapadia is Associate Professor of Economics in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is the author of A Political Theory of Money (Cambridge University Press, 2024).
Sahil Jai Dutta is Lecturer in International Political Economy in the Department of International Politics at City, University of London. His teaching and research focuses on financialisation, money, managerialism, and the political economy of Britain.