Financial Crises and the Nature of Capitalist Money ― Mutual Developments from the Work of Geoffrey Ingham

This volume is a debate about a sociology and economics of money: a form of positive trespassing. It is unique in being written by scholars of both disciplines committed to this mutual venture and in starting from the original groundwork laid by Geoffrey Ingham.

The contributors look critically at money's institutions and the meanings and history of money-creation and show the cross cutting purposes or incommensurable sides of money and its crises. These arise from severe tensions and social conflicts about the production of money and its many purposes. We demonstrate the centrality of money to capitalism and consider social disorders since the 2007 crisis, which marks the timeliness and need for dialogue. Both disciplines have far too much to offer to remain in the former, damaging standoff. While we are thankful to see a possible diminution of this split, remnants are maintained by mainstream economic and sociological theorists who, after all the crises of the past 30 years, and many before, still hold to an argument that money really does not 'matter'. We suggest, to many different and interested audiences, that since money is a promise, understanding this social relation must be a joint though plural task between economics and sociology at the very least.

Jocelyn Pixley is an economic sociologist with interests in heterodox economics, public policy, central banks and full employment. She has honorary affiliations, as Professor (Macquarie University, Australia) and Fellow at The University of New South Wales and at the GPI, London Metropolitan University, UK.


Geoffrey Harcourt Emeritus Reader in the History of Economic Theory, Cambridge (1998), Emeritus Fellow, Jesus College, Cambridge (1998), UK, and Professor Emeritus, Adelaide (1988), is now a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the School of Economics, The University of New South Wales, Australia. He is the author and editor of many books, articles and chapters in books. His books include Some Cambridge Controversies, The Theory of Capital, The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics, (with Prue Kerr) Joan Robinson and nine volumes of selected essays.