Description:
- Money is both a human universal and yet incredibly diverse, not one thing, but many
- The book combines ethnography, history, sociology and heterodox economics from multiple theoretical angles
- A human economy approach links people and their societies to the world; solutions to our main problems must be based on knowing what people do, think and want
- Although nationalism and globalization are often opposed today, the local is global and vice versa, while money and markets serve human purposes in ways that are normally hidden.
Brief description:
Keith Hart's approach to the theory and practice of money combines state and market, but with people in mind, while focusing on how the communications revolution is transforming money. He is professor of anthropology emeritus at Goldsmiths London and co-directed the Human Economy Program at the University of Pretoria, 2011-2018. His books include The Memory Bank (aka Money in an Unequal World), The Hit Man's Dilemma, The Human Economy: A Citizen's Guide, Economic Anthropology: History, Ethnography, Critique and Economy For and Against Democracy.
Review Quotes:
"Hart's human economy paradigm is changing the terms of debate in economic anthropology. This volume, which contains essays by the world's leading experts on new ways of thinking about money, explores fundamental questions about the human condition in today's unequal world." - Chris Gregory, Australian National University