MDST 4559:
Money, Media, and Society
University of Virginia
Fall 2016, Tuesday and Thursdays, 11am - 12:15pm, New Cabell Hall 283
Professor Lana Swartz
Office address: 219 Wilson Hall
Office hours: Tuesdays, 1pm – 3pm, or by appointment
Email: lanaswartz@virginia.edu
Course Description
In 2010, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a story with the headline, “U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation
Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion.” In the fake news report, people all over the country
stop in their tracks as they reconsider “little green drawings of buildings and dead white men they once used to
measure their adequacy and importance as human beings.” Although the article was humorous, it reflected larger
cultural and technical changes that had emerged by 2010. In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, money
had become strange. And it remains that way.
Money is one of the oldest technologies in the world, but in recent years a variety of experiments—from Apple
Pay to bitcoin to community currencies—have emerged, promising to reinvent the form of money itself. The
activists, entrepreneurs, artists, and many others involved in such experiments have begun to rethink the very
infrastructures through which people pay, save, measure, and transfer value, often by harnessing new digital and
communication technologies.
What is money? Where did it come from? Where is it going? What can communication and media studies tell us
about the money— and its alternatives?
In this course, we will attempt to answer some of these questions. The first part provides historical, cultural, and
technological context to money and its infrastructures and media. The second looks at various ways people have
been imagining money otherwise. The third section introduces students to the technical and regulatory apparatus
of the modern payment system as it is. Finally, students are asked to combine all three elements of “making
money” and engage in its re-imaging themselves.
Course Materials
The following books are required reading:
Bill Maurer. 2015. How would you like to pay? Duke University Press.
I have ordered the paperback version of the book and it should be available at the bookstore soon.
Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness. 2013. Payment Systems in The U.S. 2nd Edition.
I suggest purchasing the ebook, which is a third the cost of the paper version.
The rest of the materials will be available on Collab or online. Please either print the readings out or have them
loaded on a tablet or reader for class. If you print them out, I strongly suggest keeping them organized in a three
ring binder in order to keep them organized for later study.
Assessment and Policies
Assignments
Forum assignments
10 points
Money Field Notes
20 points
on-going
Each class has a forum assignment listed. Be sure to follow the directions each week. This must be completed by
5pm the evening before class. You must also read and comment on at least one of your classmates post each
week. Be respectful and courteous, even if you disagree. Feel free to be creative and casual in your posts. They do
not need to be long, but you should show real engagement. If you use examples from real life that involve people
who are not public figures, please take care to anonymize them.
complete before Nov 29
Throughout the semester, you will keep on-going field notes about money. We will discuss them in class as we go
along. You should NOT post them all at once; instead, you should post them regularly. Each set of notes should
have at least 5 entries. TRY TO TAKE AS MANY PICTURES AS POSSIBLE.
Each set of notes has a different emphasis:


Money in Media: Keep track of all notable mentions or appearances of money in the media you consume.
Your note should consist of the date, time, location you saw the media; information about the media
(title, genre, etc); a description of the mention or appearance of money; your reaction and reflections. If
you can get a screenshot, photo, or link to the media, that is better. Some of your entries should be
media-rich.
Money in Conversation: Keep track of all notable mentions of money you encounter in conversation. Your
note should consist of the date, time, location you heard the mention; a description of the speaker(s); a
description of what they said; your reaction and reflections. When appropriate, ask about it. For example:
if you hear money-related slang, ask the person about it; if you hear someone talk about some kind of
money practice, follow-up. Some of your entries should have follow-up questions.


Money in Practice: Keep track of all notable money practices you encounter in everyday life. Your notes
should consist of: the date, time, location you saw the practice; a description of the situation and actors
involved; a description of what was done; your reaction and reflections. At various points, you should chat
with the people involved in the practice. For example: talk to a merchant about their point of sales system
when you see if breaking down; if you see someone using Apple Pay or an unusual form of payment, as
about it. Some of your entries should have follow-up questions.
During the course of your observations, you should a picture of at least one interesting money object you
encounter along the way to be submitted to the Transactions Collaborative Archive
(http://transactionsarchive.socialcomputing.uci.edu/submit).
Midterm exam
20 points
October 6
Breaking Apps exercise
10 points
October 25
Payment Bootcamp exam
15 points
November 22
Final Group Project
20 points
December 12
Participation
5 points
The exam will consist of short answers and one short essay drawn from the readings and discussions. To prepare
for the exam, you should be able to demonstrate mastery over key terms and overarching arguments. You only
need to bring a pen to the exam.
You will be asked to select a new-to-you fin tech app or product, do some quick research about it, download the
app, and try to use it, see how well it works, investigate the terms of service, and basically push the app to its limits
until you figure how, why and if the app is “broken” in some way. You will write a up a short assignment on the
promises and realities of the app. Further instructions will be circulated.
The exam will assess your mastery over basic key components of the U.S. payments industry. We will discuss the
format of this exam later in the semester.
In groups, you will use your knowledge of theory of money, the payments industry, and your field notes to come
up with a new form of financial technology. Each group will make a multimedia (broadly defined) presentation to
the class that demonstrates your idea and “pitches” it. The idea can be entrepreneurial, practical, critical, artful, or
satirical. (Please make sure, although I know it is a pain, that any satire is made clear to the audience). In addition
to the presentation, each group should produce an Executive Summary that explains the idea. In the presentation
and summary, each group should make use of three course concepts in a way that demonstrates mastery of the
material. The presentations will be judged by guests from the financial technology industry.
On-going
While there will be some lecture, the class meetings will consist mostly of large and small group discussion. You are
expected to participate fully in these conversations. I expect everyone do to do all the readings and will randomly
call on people.
Twice during the semester, when you think you’ve been particularly engaged, you should submit a short reflection
on your participation.
Grade Scale
Total points:
A+
97
B+
A-
90
B-
A
95
B
87
83
80
C+
C
C-
77
D+
67
70
D-
60
73
D
63
Writing Assignment Standards
The document must be posted on your electronic portfolio page by the due date. Late work will be docked a letter
grade. COMPUTER FAILURE WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED A VIABLE EXCUSE FOR LATE WORK. The essay must follow
directions, both in terms of responding to the assignment prompt and specified word count, etc. As a University of
Virginia student, you should show pride in your work. The essay should be free from careless errors and spelling,
grammar, and usage should be reasonably good. The essay must be well organized, with a thesis statement, an
element of evidence in each paragraph, appropriate citations to work that yielded the evidence, and a clear
conclusion. If you draw examples people who are not public figures, you should be sure to anonymize them.
Honor Statement
I trust every student in this course to fully comply with all of the provisions of the UVA honor system. In addition to
pledging that you have neither received nor given aid while producing written work for this course, your signature
also affirms that you have not plagiarized from other sources and have granted appropriate credit. Your signature
also indicates that you have represented your own words as your own and others’ as others’. All alleged honor
violations brought to my attention will be forwarded to the Honor Committee. If, in my judgment, it is beyond a
reasonable doubt that a student has committed an honor violation with regard to a given exam, that student will
receive an immediate grade of 'F' for that exam, irrespective of any subsequent action taken by the Honor
Committee.
Attendance
Attending class sessions—showing up on time and staying the entire time is required. However, life is full of
unexpected events, so each student gets 2 unexcused absences over the course of the semester. These can be
used for any reason: sickness, family vacations, outside commitments, whatever.
Even when you take an unexcused absence, you should complete the reading and the forum post. If a larger
assignment is due, you must also complete it on time. You are expected to find out from a classmate-- not me-what you missed in the event that you are absent.
Once these two unexcused absences are used up, your final grade will drop a half a grade with every excess
absence.
Excused Absences include religious holidays, family emergencies, serious illness, and athletics: UVA has specific
policies about all of these. Any student with one of these issues should talk to me individually.
Technology
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s just too hard to resist social media during class. So, one way that you will come
to learn more about social media is to be deprived of it for a short period of time during class! Yay! In other words,
no laptops during class. You may bring a tablet, reader, or other flat device. If you REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to
take notes on your laptop, see me.
Schedule and Readings
Tuesday, August 23
Introduction
What is money?
What do you hope to get out of this class?
Go over syllabus
Introduction
Thursday, August 25
Money as Media
James Carey. 1989. “A Cultural Approach to Communication.” Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and
Society. Unwin Hyman. http://web.mit.edu/21l.432/www/readings/Carey_CulturalApproachCommunication.pdf
Eric Helleiner. 1998. “National currencies and national identities.” American Behavioral Scientist. 41:1409-1436.
Karen Strassler. “The Face of Money: Currency, Crisis, and Remediation in Post-Suharto Indonesia.” Cultural
Anthropology. 24:1.
Forum assignment: Reflect on money as described by Helleiner and Strassler—as well as your own personal
experience of money-- in terms of both transmission and ritual communication.
Tuesday, August 30
What is money?
Bill Maurer. 2016. “Introduction: Who This Book is For”; “Disruptions in Money”; “What is money?” How would
you like to Pay? Duke University Press. (Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2)
Brett Scott. 2013. “So You Want to Invent Your Own Currency.” Aeon Magazine.
http://www.aeonmagazine.com/living-together/so-you-want-to-invent-your-own-currency/
Forum assignment: What would it take, really, to make a form of money? What are all the things money has to do?
What conditions would have to be satisfied?
Thursday, September 1
What is money for?
Bill Maurer. 2016. “Two Scenarios: A Day in the Money Life”; “The use case for money” How would you like to Pay?
Duke University Press. (Chapters 3 and 5)
Viviana Zelizer. 1994. “The Marking of Money.” The Social Meaning of Money. Basic Books.
Forum assignment: In what ways are new money technologies surfaces long-standing uses of money that might be
left out by traditional economists?
Tuesday, September 6
Where did money come from?
Bill Maurer. 2016. “The evolution of money?” How would you like to Pay? Duke University Press. (Chapter 4)
Nigel Dodd. 2014. “Origins.” The Social Life of Money. Princeton University Press.
Ilana Strauss. 2016. “The Myth of the Barter Economy.” The Atlantic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-society-myth/471051/?utm_source=SFFB
Forum assignment: What are the prevailing myths about the origin of money? What implications do these myths
have?
Thursday, September 8
Money as Memory
David Graeber. 2017. “Tallies.” Bill Maurer and Lana Swartz, eds. Paid: Explorations with Transactional Things. MIT
Press.
Narayana Kocherlakota. 1995. Money is Memory. Federal Reserve of Minneapolis.
https://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/sr/sr218.pdf
Keith Hart. 1986. “Heads or Tails: Two Sides of the Coin.” Man, Vol. 21, No. 4 pp. 637-656
https://www.academia.edu/1895657/Heads_or_tails_Two_sides_of_the_coin
Tuesday, September 13
How does memory become money?
Nigel Dodd. 2014. Selections from “Debt.” The Social Life of Money. Princeton University Press. (Pg 93-111)
Christine Desan. 2015. “Money as a Legal Institution.” David Fox and Wolfgang Ernst, eds. Money in the Western
Legal Tradition. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2321313
Forum assignment: Sociologist Georg Simmel wrote that “money is a claim upon society.” It is often said that the
“state utters currency.” What might these two quotes mean? Explain in terms of the reading.
Thursday, September 15
How do we know if something is money?
Bruce Carruthers and Wendy Espelund. 1998. “Money, Meaning, Morality.” American Behavioral Scientist vol. 41
no. 10 1384-1408
Dave Tabler. 2015. “Company Store Scrip.” Appalachian History
http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2015/09/company-store-scrip.html
“Scrip: A coal Miner’s Credit Card.” https://www.nps.gov/biso/learn/historyculture/scrip.htm
Finn Brunton. 2017. “Silver.” 2017. Bill Maurer and Lana Swartz, eds. Paid: Explorations with Transactional Things.
MIT Press.
Sarah Jeong. 2017. “Dogecoin.” Bill Maurer and Lana Swartz, eds. Paid: Explorations with Transactional Things. MIT
Press.
Forum post: Are scrip, silver, and Dogecoin money? Why or why not? Refer to both Carruthers and Espelund and
other ideas from the course to explain.
Tuesday, September 20
Money as Infrastructure
Bill Maurer. 2016. “What’s in your Wallet?”; “What Can You Do with a Mobile Phone?”; “Airtime” How would you
like to Pay? Duke University Press. (Chapter 6, 7, 8)
Lana Swartz. 2017. “Cards.” Bill Maurer and Lana Swartz, eds. Paid: Explorations with Transactional Things. MIT
Press.
Virginia Eubanks (2014) “Want to Predict the Future of Surveillance? Ask Poor Communities.” The American
Prospect. http://prospect.org/article/want-predict-future-surveillance-ask-poor-communities
Susan Leigh Star. 1998. “The Ethnography of Infrastructure.” American Behavioral Scientist.
http://www.imtfi.uci.edu/files/articles/Star.pdf
Forum assignment: Consider a specific payment system as an infrastructure, according to Star’s description of
infrastructure.
Thursday, September 22
Money as Social Media
Joe Deville. 2013. “Leaky Data: How Wonga Makes Lending Decisions.” The Charisma Network.
http://www.charisma-network.net/finance/leaky-data-how-wonga-makes-lending-decisions
Lana Swartz. 2013. “Goodbye, Wallet! Towards a Transactional Geography of Mobile Payment.” Media Fields
Journal. 6: Data/Space. http://mediafieldsjournal.squares.pace.com/goodbye-wallet/
Virginia Eubanks (2014) “Want to Predict the Future of Surveillance? Ask Poor Communities.” The American
Prospect. http://prospect.org/article/want-predict-future-surveillance-ask-poor-communities
Listen: 2014 “Follow the Money,” Reply All Podcast. https://gimletmedia.com/episode/4-follow-the-money/
Forum Assignment: How is money changing? How do these changes reflect both the ritual and transmission
dimensions of money? What parts of these changes are you excited about? What concerns you?
Tuesday, September 27
Money as Repertoire and Circuit
Bill Maurer. 2016. “Monetary Repertoires” How would you like to Pay? Duke University Press. (Chapter 9)
Viviana Zelizer. 2006. “Circuits in Economic Life.” Economic Sociology: The European Newspaper
http://econsoc.mpifg.de/archive/econ_soc_8-1.pdf (the reading starts on page 30 of this PDF)
Forum assignment: Describe your monetary repertoires and the economic circuits of which you are a part.
Thursday, September 29
Tuesday October 4
Review for Mid-term
Reading Day – NO CLASS
Thursday, October 6
Tuesday, October 11
Mid-term Exam
Imagining Money: alternative economies
Note: October 17 is the deadline to register to vote in Virginia. Don’t forget to register if you want to vote!
JK Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Stephen Healy. 2013. Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for
Transforming Our Communities. University of Minnesota Press. http://takebackeconomy.net/wpcontent/uploads/2013/09/Take-Back-the-Economy_sample-chapter.pdf
Max Haiven. 2012. “Can Pikachu save Fannie Mae? Negotiating value and creativity in the Pokéconomy.” Cultural
Studies 26(4):.516-541. https://maxhaiven.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/haiven-pokemon-prelim-web.pdf
Hannah Appel. 2014. “Occupy Wall Street and the Economic Imagination.” Cultural Anthropology.
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/appel/appel-theeconomicimagination.pdf
Forum assignment: What does it mean to “imagine” the money and the economy differently? Connect this
approach to readings from the first half of the semester.
Thursday, October 13
Imagining Money: bitcoin and blockchain
Satoshi Nakamoto. “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
Sarah Jeong. 2013. “Bitcoin Protocol as Law.”
http://www.modernmoneynetwork.org/sites/default/files/biblio/Bitcoin%20Protocol%20as%20Law.pdf
More reading TBD
Forum assignment: What did you know about bitcoin and blockchain going into this week? Did you learn anything
new? What surprised you?
Tuesday, October 18
Imagining Money: Art
Alexandra Lippman. 2017. “Cash.” 2017. Bill Maurer and Lana Swartz, eds. Paid: Explorations with Transactional
Things. MIT Press.
Lawrence Weschler. 1999. Boggs: A Comedy of Values. University of Chicago Press. Pgs 3-67.
Rob Maguire. 2013. “The Art and Money Project: exploring the nexus of creativity and capitalism.” Art Threat.
http://artthreat.net/2013/06/art-money-project-max-haiven/ and Max Haiven, The Art and Money Project:
http://moneyandart.tumblr.com/
Forum assignment: Compare and contrast the approaches to money taken by each artist. Would you accept a
Boggs bill? Why or why not? Would you accept a bitcoin? Or a time dollar? Which would you rather take? Explain.
Thursday, October 20
Imagining Money: Science Fiction
Neal Stephenson. 1995. “The Great Simoleon Caper.” Time.
http://www.electricinca.com/56/stephenson/simoleon.pdf
Manu Saadia. 2016. Trekonomics. Selections.
Forum assignment: What can science fiction tell us about money? And about technology more broadly? Compare
and contrast the two economic futures presenting by Stephenson and by Star Trek.
Tuesday, October 25
Breaking Apps – NO CLASS MEETING
Professor Swartz is doing Field Work at Money 2020, the largest payments industry conference. In lieu of class, you
will be spending time doing the Breaking Apps exercise. Instructions will be circulated later.
Forum post: Go to the Money 2020 website and look at the agenda. Find 3 sessions that sound interesting to you.
Read the descriptions, read the bios of the participants, look up companies they work for. For each, write a
paragraph connecting the app to course concepts.
Due: Breaking App exercise completed before next class
Thursday, October 27
Imagining Money: Money, Death, and the Supernatural
(Halloween class!)
Alex Adair, Joanne Choi, Ceasor Dennis, Clara Lin, Lambert Yuen, “Hell Money.”
http://www.anthropology.uci.edu/~wmmaurer/courses/anthro_money_2004/GhostMoney.htm
Heonik Kwon, 2007. “Dollarization of Vietnamese Ghost Economy.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Michael Taussig. 1977. "The Genesis of Capitalism amongst a South American Peasantry: Devil's Labor and the
Baptism of Money," Comparative History 19(2) 130-55.
http://www.iupui.edu/~womrel/Rel433%20Readings/01_SearchableTextFiles/Taussig_GenesisOfCapitalism.pdf
Spend some time on this website: https://skeletonsaint.com , especially these pages:
https://skeletonsaint.com/2013/04/30/devotiontothesaintofdeath
https://skeletonsaint.com/2014/04/12/death-taxes-santa-muerte-saint-of-good-fortune
Forum post: Do you know of any traditions, paranormal beliefs, folk tales or imagery related to money? Can you
think of any movies, television shows, creepypasta, or other media representations that illustrate such a
connection? If not, see if you can find any in modern U.S. culture. They’re there! What is the relationship of money
to the supernatural? To fear? To death?
Tuesday, November 1
Payments Bootcamp
Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness. 2013. Payment Systems in The U.S. 2nd Edition Chapter 1 (Introduction)
and Chapter 2
Forum assignment: Post an example of something from the reading you’ve observed in everyday life. Also, post
any questions you have about things you don’t understand from the reading.
Thursday, November 3
Payments Bootcamp
Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness. 2013. Payment Systems in The U.S. 2nd Edition. Chapters 3 and 4
Forum assignment: Post an example of something from the reading you’ve observed in everyday life. Also, post
any questions you have about things you don’t understand from the reading.
Tuesday, November 8
Thursday, November 10
Election Day! No class: Go vote!
Payments Bootcamp
Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness. 2013. Payment Systems in The U.S. 2nd Edition. Chapters 5 and 6
Forum assignment: Post an example of something from the reading you’ve observed in everyday life. Also, post
any questions you have about things you don’t understand from the reading.
Tuesday, November 15
Payments Bootcamp
Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness. 2013. Payment Systems in The U.S. 2nd Edition. Chapters 8, 9
Forum assignment: Post an example of something from the reading you’ve observed in everyday life. Also, post
any questions you have about things you don’t understand from the reading.
Thursday, November 17
Payments Bootcamp
Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness. 2013. Payment Systems in The U.S. 2nd Edition. Chapter 10
This class will also be a review, so come prepared with questions.
Forum assignment: Post an example of something from the reading you’ve observed in everyday life. Also, post
any questions you have about things you don’t understand from the reading.
Tuesday, November 22
Thursday, November 24
Tuesday, November 29
Payments Bootcamp Exam
Thanksgiving Holiday, NO CLASS
Field Notes Presentations
Each student will make a presentation about something interesting from their Field Notes, connecting to specific
ideas from the course. The example should not just be an illustration: students should explain why it’s genuinely
interesting or provocative.
Forum assignment: Write up a 2 paragraphs on your example
Due: All Money Field Notes, including photograph submitted to Transactions, should be complete.
Thursday, December 1
Prepare for Final Presentations
Tuesday, December 6
Wrapping Up
Groups will meet in class, during class time. Professor Swartz will circulate and be present to answer any questions
you may have.
Q&A for final presentation
Class reflection
Monday, December 12
Final Presentations, 9am - noon