This book's premise is not only the commonly accepted cultural relativity of economic concepts, but also the observation that the current shift in the meaning of concepts like "market," "currency," "exchange" and "money" suggests that culture is undergoing a change with unpredictable economic and political consequences.

Joan Ramon Resina is Professor in the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures and the Department of Comparative Literature at Stanford University, where he directs the Iberian Studies Program at the Europe Center.

Introduction Joan Ramon Resina 1 What Does Money Signify? The "transvaluation of values" taking place in the relation between currency and language. Jan Söffner 2 The Cultural Currency of Semiocapitalism. On the General Law of Gift Exchange. Philipp Kleinmichel 3 Social Reconfigurations of Debt-Ridden Societies. David Murillo 4 Money, Society and Trust: Lessons from Crisis. Gabriela Badica 5 Rural Continuities in the Urban Revolution. Ethics of Work, Labor and Pay in the West African Savannah. Till Förster 6 The Bonfires of Money. Capitalism, Memory and Iconoclasm. Germán Labrador Méndez 7 The Libidinal Investments of the Social Field. Elsie Mitchie 8 Unpredictability as an Economic Value. Simona skrabec 9 "Cultural Economy" and "Cultural Economics": Epistemological and Political Consequences of a Fatal Intertwinement. Giovanni Leghissa 10 "I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond": Money, Law, and Prelegal Liability in Shakespeare and Kleist. Christian Moser 11 The Alchemy of Money. Money As a Standard of Value. Bruna Ingrao 12 The Troubles of Production. Ezra Pound and Jean Baudrillard on the Symbols of Exchange. Joan Ramon Resina