Society After Money

A Dialogue

Project Society After Money

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781501374005
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781501347382
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Economics

Project Society After Money is an interdisciplinary project between commons theory, evolutionary political economy, media studies and sociology, that enter into a dialogue with one another in order to look at their specific theories and criticisms of money. Conceived as the beginning of a necessary interdisciplinary dialogue, the possibilities of post-monetary forms of organization and production are taken into account and examined. On one hand there is a lot of talk about 'digital revolution', 'mediatized society', 'networks', 'Industry 4.0'. On the other hand the present is described in terms of crisis: 'financial crisis', 'economic crisis', 'planetary boundaries'. At once there is the description of a media-technological change along with massive social and ecological disruptions.

Society After Money is based on the premise that there might be a conflict between digital media/digital technology and the medium of money – and perhaps new digital possibilities that allow alternative forms of economy. It criticizes what is normally seen as self-evident and natural, namely that social coordination has to be done by the medium of money. We're left with a highly innovative collection of contributions that initiates a broader social discourse on the role of money in the global society of the 21st century.

Part 1

A Society After Money? Historical Position, Characteristics and Perspectives of Current Approaches to Post-monetary Economic Activity

1

A Society After Money? Historical Position, Characteristics and Perspectives of Current Approaches to Post-monetary Economic Activity¹

Lars Heitmann

The earth is a madhouse. And yet the knowledge humanity has attained so far could make it a paradise. For this to happen, though, global society would have to come to its senses.

Joseph Weizenbaum

Introduction

The current phase of societal development—which the different self-descriptions of society refer to as, for example, “postmodernity,” “globalization,” the “information society,” “financial-market capitalism” or “turbo capitalism” —is characterized by multilayered crises. This crisis-prone nature is demonstrated on the one hand by objective facts such as rates of economic growth, or shifts in the relationship between economic and political institutions, discernible from the constant pumping of fresh money into the markets by many central banks, or more generally, from the power of the economy in relation to the political sphere (and thus “society”). On the other hand, above and beyond this, it is demonstrated by subjective perceptions: that this “system” demands a great deal from the individual, but gives (too) little, that hard work no longer pays off, or that expectations can no longer be met. It is also evident in the perception that even consuming and having a lot only has a limited impact on individual “happiness.” Another important factor is that many people (now) find it impossible to overlook or accept the ecological and social consequences of the current system.²

These objective facts and subjective perceptions have given rise to widespread debates about the direction in which society (that is, the economy) should develop in the future. These debates prove, on closer inspection, to be extremely diverse: while on the one hand there is discussion of familiar right-wing, liberal or social-democratic approaches (which all see reform of the existing monetary system as the solution), on the other hand there are approaches that aim at different ways of generating and using money (e.g. the abolition of deposit money creation or interest), and, going beyond this, approaches that are unwilling to follow either “reformist” or “alternative” paths, and try to find solutions beyond money.³

What is striking is that the “alternative” debates and approaches, and sometimes even the more fundamental ones focused on something “beyond money,” are no longer a sideshow put on by eccentrics and freaks, but are also followed and even supported by the political system and the business world.⁴

Since the attempts at an alternative monetary economy have so far been demonstrably unconvincing, both theoretically and practically, the field of moneyless alternatives has become a particular focus of interest.

The spectrum of approaches to post-monetary economic activity currently up for discussion proves to be extremely diverse: we find a wide range of approaches such as attempts by individuals or small groups to live without money, based on notions of the “free economy”⁵ or “self-sufficiency,” and thus linked with very varied concepts of production; anonymized urban “free economies” (of production as well as distribution and use); global “virtual,” “networked” “free economies”; small-scale “subsistence” lifestyles, here again associated with widely differing concepts of production; a “high-tech planned economy” conceived in global terms, leaning toward either democracy or a highly centralized expertocracy or technocracy; technology-oriented “free economies” with highly decentralized but globally integrated concepts of reproduction, and more. In other words, we find things as diverse as “opting out” or living “off-grid,” open municipal/communal gardens, moneyless rural communes, global “free software communities,” “makerspaces” or far-reaching visions of a “cybersocialist” society. These different organizational concepts are, in turn, linked with very diverse worldviews and values, from broadly esoteric or conservative attitudes to ultra-liberal ones.

In order to introduce the subject and prepare the way for the subsequent articles in the volume, this chapter aims to define the overall socio-historical position of the very diverse post-monetary approaches that exist today, to present them in their diversity in a systematic and problem-oriented way, and lastly to reflect on their prospects for development in terms of a possible “society after money.”

I will begin by showing that the aspiration to moneyless economic activity does not seem at all absurd based on the current state of research. For one thing, it can be assumed that it is only in capitalism that money plays an essential role, i.e. one that shapes economic reproduction in the narrow sense and society as a whole, and that there is therefore scarcely any plausible justification for the need to use money, especially in the specifically modern form (1.1). For another thing, it is evident in many ways that even within the reproduction of the economic system that has evolved with the triumph of capitalism in the modern age, various non-monetary forms of reproduction are enormously important, contrary to all dogmas about the need for the market (1.2). Considering these often-overlooked areas of present-day reproduction draws attention to the existence, in the realms of the “subsistence economy,” of other attitudes and social rationales than those shaped by the monetary economy. These are also often overlooked (in everyday and political practice as well as in academia). According to the view of post-monetary approaches based on the “subsistence economy,” however, we need to identify and generalize these, i.e. make them the basis for the reproduction of all areas, including those that are now (still) organized on a monetary basis (1.3).

In the second section, building on this basic positioning of post-monetary economic activity, I give a systematic overview of the current approaches to post-monetary economic activity, that is, those approaches that deliberately attempt to expand moneyless practices of reproduction (2). Here I initially explore the specific contemporary preconditions for the development of such approaches (keyword: “postmodernity”), in order to understand the diversity of their current forms. I attempt to cut a path through the jungle of different approaches by distinguishing between differing degrees of division of labor (2.1). Against this background, I present a few selected approaches as examples of each tendency, while also taking into account the problematic aspects raised in the debates (2.2). The chapter ends by considering possible developmental prospects for post-monetary approaches (3).

Since this is intended as a general introduction to the topic of the volume and the subsequent articles, my main aim here is to paint a broad overall picture of the field. In cases of doubt, the presentation therefore tends toward breadth rather than depth: many things that would merit detailed examination can only be dealt with superficially here.⁶ This also applies to the (technical) terminology cited.

1. With Money and Without Money: Yesterda...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part 1 A Society After Money?
• 1 A Society After Money? Historical Position, Characteristics and Perspectives of Current Approaches to Post-monetary Economic Activity Lars Heitmann
• Part 2 Concept and Crisis of Money
• 2.1 The Elephant in the Room: The Money Commodity and Its Mysteries Ernst Lohoff
• 2.2 Monetary Mechanisms: Origins, Dynamics and Crisis Tobias Aufderheide-Kohl
• 2.3 Trialogue: Money as Medium or as General Commodity? Ernst Lohoff, Hanno Pahl, and Jens Schröter
• 2.4 On the Possibility of a Society After Money: Evolutionary Political Economy, Economic Subjectivity and Planetary-scale Computation Ernest Aigner and Manuel Scholz-Wäckerle
• Part 3 Money as an Alien
• 3 Money as an Alien: Post-monetary Elements in Utopian Literature and Science Fiction Annette Schlemm
• Part 4 Mediation After Money
• 4.1 A Critical View on the Criticism of Money Christian Siefkes
• 4.2 Categorical Foundations of a Post-monetary Society Stefan Meretz
• 4.3 The Post-Capitalist Feminism Cookie: The Main Course—A Commons-creating Peer Production as a Possible Future Friederike Habermann
• 4.4 Trialogue: Implicit and Explicit Views of Human Nature Friederike Habermann, Stefan Meretz, and Christian Siefkes
• Part 5 Mediality After Money
• 5.1 Are We Approaching a Moneyless Society? Peter Karl Fleissner
• 5.2 Money: For a Non-money Economy Stefan Heidenreich
• 5.3 Money and Digital Media Jasmin Kathöfer and Jens Schröter
• Afterword Anitra Nelson
• Notes on Contributors
• Index
• Copyright