Utopian Monies
Since the 2008 global financial crisis, there has been an explosion of interest in alternative and complementary currencies, by academics, governments, practitioners, and activists who are interested in the social and political possibilities generated by money's myriad forms; and by everyday users of money who are coming face-to-face with new forms of payment such as Apple Pay and PayPal, novel modes of financing such as crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, and new digital currencies such as Bitcoin. Much of this interest has sought to reverse the conventional wisdom that money is a socially corrosive force. This chapter offers a survey and discussion of some of the most important developments in this field and argues that they all help to confirm the value and continuing relevance of Zelizer's pathbreaking analysis of the social meaning of money and, more recently, her work on the role of monetary media in the formation of circuits of commerce.