How is value created and sustained? What role does exchange play in value’s creation? In this course, we explore the relation between value and exchange in order to analyze contemporary, historical, and cross-cultural practices involving debt and money. We will read several theorists, including Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Marcel Mauss, Gayle Rubin, and David Graeber, on the relation between value and exchange. On this basis, we will then examine the ethical implications of money and debt relations. In so doing, we will analyze and contrast contemporary and market forms of exchange with historical and cross-cultural practices of exchange.
- Teacher: Daniel Wack