Pod Academy

What exactly is money? Craig Barfoot spoke to Nigel Dodd, Professor of Sociology at LSE and author of The Social Life of Money, to find out. Nigel Dodd:  We usually think of money as notes and coins, or even gold.  But, in fact, it mostly takes the form of claims made through the banking system, mediated by plastic cards!  Money has a dynamic quality – it is more like a verb than a noun. Money is claims that move between people, and it is that movement that sustains its value. It has value not because it has intrinsic qualities, but because of the series of relationships it is part of.  For example, you accept euros or pounds or dollars or yen in return for your work, and you then exchange them for goods and services. In other words, money is what it does rather than what it is.     Craig Barfoot: So is it about trust? ND: Money is partly about trust. We want to trust that the money in our pocket will retain its value. We don’t want to be worrying about money, indeed as soon as we do it means money is