Money: communicative functions of payment and price. Issue 6 (2nd November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Moor, Liz
• Is Part Of: Consumption, markets & culture. Volume 21:Issue 6(2018)
• Page Start: 574
• Page End: 581
• Publication Date: 2018-11-02
• Subjects: Money -- markets -- marketplace icon -- price -- payments -- communication; Consumption (Economics) -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Consumers -- Attitudes -- Periodicals; Marketing -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 306.305
• DOI: 10.1080/10253866.2017.1359953
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1025-3866

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Money is rich in semiotic potential and its capacity to express social identity and collectivity is well established. This essay explores a range of communicative functions of money, focusing in particular on the ways in which payments and prices may serve as cultural signals. It asks how the communicative significance of money might change as a result of the introduction of new types of currency, payment systems and pricing techniques, and suggests that such developments are likely to involve revisiting two key tensions: between state or corporate power on the one hand, and individual autonomy and privacy on the other; and between money's power to generate collectivity and its power to divide and exclude.