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Maurer B, 2003, "Uncanny exchanges: the possibilities and failures of 'making change' with alternative monetary forms" Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 21(3) 317 – 340
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Uncanny exchanges: the possibilities and failures of 'making change' with alternative monetary forms

Bill Maurer

Received 26 June 2001; in revised form 29 June 2002

Abstract. In most standard accounts, modern money depends on its function as the general equivalent. Equivalence, in turn, rotates around a specific numerological metaphysics, including the concept of zero and the algebraic function. Yet, rarely are the mathematics of equivalence subject to critical scrutiny. In this paper I explore contemporary alternative numerologies of money and finance. The alternatives that I consider are a US local scrip currency and transnational Islamic finance experiments. My data come from fieldwork in Ithaca, New York, and from research among Islamic finance specialists devising new financial products. I am interested in how these alternatives make explicit the moral form of the mathematics of the general equivalent.

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