The Ontological Sociology of Cryptocurrency: A Theoretical Exploration of Bitcoin

For millennia, money has been a basal element of everyday life reality in market-organized societies. Albeit money has changed extrinsically (e.g., form, use, utility) countless of times, some intrinsic characteristics remain the same, i.e., money is reified value. But why? What gives money value? Even more crucial, what is money in the first place? This exploratory study delves into the intricacies of money, in particular the revolutionary 21st century pecuniary techno-phenomenon, a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin. Though cryptocurrencies have been the topic of several financial and legal scholarly publications for a few years, we rather focus our analysis on Bitcoin\u27s ontological characteristics under a schema of overlapping theoretical layers: Social Exchange Theory, Marxian Dialectics, and Social Construction of Reality. Our intention is to dissect Bitcoin sociologically and empirically examine its global exchange, consumption, and institutionalization. Consequently, we venture to ask, can Bitcoin redefine the meaning of money and how we relate to it? Reformulate the role of banking? Disrupt the universally accepted objective reality of currency value attached to sensorial experience? Transfer trust from ambivalent human relations to an incorruptible algorithm? Or even become the Internet of money

The grammar of money: an analytical account of money as a discursive institution in light of the practice of complementary currencies

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, complementary currencies - from local initiatives like the Brixton Pound to timebanks, business-to-business currencies and, of course, Bitcoin - have received unprecedented attention by academics, policy makers, the media and the general public. However, at close theoretic inspection money itself remains as elusive a phenomenon as water must be to fish. Economic and business disciplines commonly only describe the use and functionality of money rather than its nature. Sociology and philosophy have a more fundamental set of approaches, but remain largely unintegrated in financial policy and common perception. At the same time, new forms of currency challenge predominant definitions of money and their implementation in the law and financial regulation. Unless our understanding of money and currencies is questioned and extended to consistently reflect theory and practice, its current misalignment threatens to impede much needed reform and innovation of the financial systems towards equity, democratic participation and sustainability. After reviewing current monetary theories and their epistemological underpinning, this thesis proposes a new theoretic framework of money as a ‘discursive institution’ that can be applied coherently to all monetary phenomena, conventional and unconventional. It also allows for the empirical analysis of currencies with the methodologies of neo-institutionalism, practice theory and critical discourse analysis. This will here be demonstrated in a transdisciplinary triangulation concerning three sets of data from the diverse field of complementary currencies, the publications of the Bank of England and monetary laws from the United States. The findings do not only demonstrate the heuristic value of the theory of discursive institutionalism in regard to money and complementary currencies, but highlight how regulatory and legal definitions even of conventional money lack the coherence and clarity required to appropriately explicate monetary innovation. Accordingly, this study concludes with recommendations for monetary theory, policy and research that can address the current inconsistencies

City, Retail and Consumption

[Italiano]: City, Retail and Consumption si concentra sul cambiamento degli spazi urbani attraverso la chiave interpretativa offerta dal commercio e dal consumo, tra processi di globalizzazione e radicamento nei contesti locali. Il libro è stato pubblicato nel 2015 come risultato del quarto seminario internazionale sui tre temi, realizzato all'Università di Napoli “L’Orientale” dal 14 al 17 ottobre 2013 grazie al contributo di geografi di vari paesi (Brasile, Francia, Italia, Portogallo e Spagna) e arricchito da contributi di specialisti (architetti, urbanisti, ingegneri, economisti) e stakeholders. Il volume raccoglie quasi cinquanta testi scritti dopo un fruttuoso dibattito non solo su teorie, approcci e metodi, ma anche sulle implicazioni pratiche della pianificazione urbana per i luoghi dello shopping e del consumo. I casi studio spaziano da San Paolo a Presidente Prudente, da Buenos Aires a Città del Messico ed ancora da Barcellona e Lleida a Lisbona, Parigi, Ankara, Copenhagen e molte città italiane. Attraverso diverse scale di analisi, gli autori hanno posto la loro attenzione su temi rilevanti per gli studi urbani: resilienza, sostenibilità, dialettica tra spazi pubblici e privati, impatto dell’e-commerce nelle aree urbane, gentrificazione residenziale e commerciale, neoliberismo e diritto alla città. /[English]: City, Retail and Consumption focuses on changing urban spaces through the interpretative key offered by retail and consumption, between globalization processes and the embeddedness in local contexts. The book was published in 2015 as the result of the fourth international seminar on the three issues, carried out at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” from 14 to 17 October 2013 thanks to the contribution of geographers from various countries (Brazil, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain) and enriched by contributions from specialists (architects, urban planners, engineers, economists) and stakeholders. The volume collects almost fifty texts written after a fruitful debate not only about theories, approaches and methods but also about the practical implications of the urban planning for shopping and consumption places. The case studies range from Sao Paulo to Presidente Prudente, from Buenos Aires to Mexico City and again from Barcelona and Lleida to Lisbon, Paris, Ankara, Copenhagen and many Italian cities. Through different scales of analysis, the contributors have indeed paid their attention on relevant issues to urban studies: resilience, sustainability, dialectic between public and private spaces, impact of e-commerce in urban areas, residential and retail gentrification, neoliberalism and the right to the city

Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History

How does one describe the Pacific's pasts? The easy confidence historians once had in writing about the region has disappeared in the turmoil surrounding today's politics of representation. Earlier narratives that focused on what happened when are now accused of encouraging myths of progress. Remembrance of Pacific Pasts takes a different course. It acknowledges history's multiplicity and selectivity, its inability to represent the past in its entirety "as it really was" and instead offers points of reference for thinking with and about the region's pasts. It encourages readers to participate in the historical process by constructing alternative histories that draw on the volume's chapters. The book's thirty-four contributions, written by a range of authors spanning a variety of styles and disciplines, are organized into four sections. The first presents frames of reference for analyzing the problems, poetics, and politics involved in addressing the region's pasts today. The second considers early Islander-Western contact focusing on how each side sought to physically and symbolically control the other. The third deals with the colonial dynamics of the region: the "tensions of empire" that permeated imperial rule in the Pacific. The fourth explores the region's postcolonial politics through a discussion of the varied ways independence and dependence overlap today. Remembrance of Pacific Pasts includes many of the region's most distinguished authors such as Albert Wendt, Greg Dening, Epeli Hau'ofa, Marshall Sahlins, Patricia Grace, and Nicholas Thomas. In addition, it features chapters by well-known writers from outside Pacific Studies -- Edward Said, James Clifford, Richard White,and Gyan Prakash -- which help place the region's dynamics in comparative perspective. By moving Pacific history beyond traditional, empirical narratives to new ways for conversing about history, by drawing on current debates surrounding the politics of representation to offer different ways for thinking about the region's pasts, this work has relevance for students and scholars of history, anthropology, and cultural studies both within and beyond the region.The open-access edition of this title was made possible with the generous support of the editor, Robert Borofsky