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Money: Instrument of Exchange or Social Institution of Value?

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Institutionalist Theories of Money

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Abstract

It is striking that many sociologists observe that their discipline has failed to establish an adequate intellectual framework for the systematic analysis of money. This led Geoffrey Ingham to speak of an ‘Underdevelopment of the sociology of money’ (Ingham in Sociologica 41(10): 3–18 1998).

Under the title of ‘La sociologie économique de la monnaie’ this text was published in French in 2009 by the Presses Universitaires de France in Traité de sociologie économique edited by Philippe Steiner and François Vatin. We thank the Presses Universitaires de France for having authorised the present publication. The present version, translated by Geoffrey Ingham, differs from the original. In order to underline the difference between the analysis of money presented here and conventional economic accounts, the term ‘instrument’ rather than ‘medium’ of exchange has been retained.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS-EHESS, Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques (PjSE), Paris, France

    André Orléan

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  1. André Orléan
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CLERSE, Université de Lille, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France

    Pierre Alary

  2. Triangle, Sciences Po Lyon, Lyon, France

    Jérôme Blanc

  3. LEDi, University of Burgundy, Dijon, France

    Ludovic Desmedt

  4. IRISSO, Paris Dauphine University, Paris, France

    Bruno Théret

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Orléan, A. (2020). Money: Instrument of Exchange or Social Institution of Value?. In: Alary, P., Blanc, J., Desmedt, L., Théret, B. (eds) Institutionalist Theories of Money. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59483-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59483-1_8

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-59482-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-59483-1

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