This article is based on a presentation given at a conference in honor and memoriam of David Graeber, in Lyon (FR), July 2022.
The text linked below was accepted for publication in a French book by Lyon University Press, forthcoming in 2025.
Abstract
Money is a central element to many walks of modern life. To realise that a central bank would lack clear and consistent definitions of “money” and “currency” is a surprising finding. This is here demonstrated for the case of the Bank of England and, in conclusion, attributed to a conflict between two of its objectives: maintaining trust in the nation’s currency, while also striving for transparency and educating the public. Those two mandates are mutually exclusive given the inadequacy of monetary theory and legal foundations in describing current monetary practices. Furthermore, what the Bank lacks in definitory clarity, they make up for with outdated monetary narratives. Discursive institutionalism as an ontology for money makes such contradictions methodologically accessible, and simultaneously provides the foundation for coherent definitions and a terminology that encompasses conventional and complementary forms of money alike.
Download the full article here (final version July 2024, basis of the French translation)