This article extends the critique of finance to money itself. It argues that our understanding of money has been distorted by a series of myths about its origin and nature, in particular, the claim that money emerged from the adoption of precious metal coinage in market systems. These myths obscure the social and political history of money and the role of states in money creation and circulation. Neoliberal ideology, by contrast, adopts a “handbag economics” that treats the state as a (...) dependent household rather than an economic actor in its own right. An alternative view of money is put forward that sees money as a social and political construct and not just a passive reflection of market activity. It is argued that the sovereign power to create money should be recognized, reclaimed, and democratized as a public resource. (shrink)

There is a long-standing claim within feminist literature that women speak with a 'different voice' (Gilligan 1982), that it is both possible and desirable to have an ethics from the standpoint of women (Noddings 1990), that the standpoint of women is a better starting point for adequate knowledge of the world (Harding 1993). This claim is central to ecofeminist politics, that women have a particular perspective on the relationship between humanity and nature and have a moral/political calling to reweave the (...) world (Diamond and Orenstein 1990) or heal the wounds of an ecologically destructive social order (Plant 1989). In this essay I will not be making the claim that women per se have a superior vision or a higher moral authority, but that an ethics that does not take account of the gendered nature of society is doomed to failure as it will confront neither the material structure of human society or the way in which that structure impacts on the materiality of the relationship between humanity and nature. (shrink)