Acknowledgments vii
Introduction. Who This Book Is For 1
1. Disruptions in Money 17
2. What Is Money? 37
3. Two Scenarios: A Day in the Money Life 51
4. The Evolution of Money 63
5. Use Cases for Money 79
6. What's in Your Wallet? 95
7. What Can You Do with a Mobile Phone? 107
8. Airtime 119
9. Monetary Repertoires 129
For Further Reading 145
Index 153
Bill Maurer is Dean of the School of Social Sciences; Professor of Anthropology, Law and Criminology, Law and Society; and the Director of the Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Pious Property: Islamic Mortgages in the United States and Mutual Life, Limited: Islamic Banking, Alternative Currencies, Lateral Reason.
"In the end, How Would You Like to Pay? is of interest less for
what it says about the future (the author makes no predictions --
which, given the Isis debacle, seems prudent) than for how it
encourages the reader to pay attention to nuances of the present.
It’s a primer of the anthropological imagination -- and a reminder
that money is too important a matter to leave to the
economists."
*Inside Higher Ed*
"This little book is the exact size it needed to be to explore the
array of new payment methods, currencies and other money technology
innovations that have erupted over the past decade, alongside with
more accessible and cheaper smartphone, tablet and other
communications and computing technologies.... Entering electronic
money contracts without understanding the problems and solutions
they represent is risky both for the isolated farmer in Kenya and
for a Silicon Valley executive, so both would benefit from this
book."
*Pennsylvania Literary Journal*
"As an anthropologist, Bill Maurer has spent the past two decades
researching the cultural and social dynamics of money. In his
latest book, he manages to condense his life’s research into one
gripping, bite-sized read that is accessible to a diverse range of
readers from the artist and software programmer to the financial
regulator or economist."
*The Independent Review*
"Maurer’s latest book is a . . . highly accessible introduction to
the complex topic of payment systems. Written in an engagingly
informal style accompanied by eye-catching photographs, it is an
excellent teaching resource that will surely become a standard
feature of reading lists in undergraduate courses in economic
anthropology and the anthropology of finance and money."
*Anthropological Forum*
"Maurer’s volume is beautifully produced and pocket-sized, with
lots of sharp illustrations in full colour and generous spacing....
Maurer’s book is for anyone interested in the future of money. That
is a lot of people. It aims to surprise readers by approaching
money in ways that are at once counter-intuitive and familiar."
*Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute*
"Bill Maurer’s short, pocket-sized, succinct, lively, and sharply
clear book on a vast and varied topic—the history and practice of
monetary payments, worldwide—works like a skillfully cut gemstone.
Keep turning, keep noticing new facets of the complexly brilliant
entity that is money, as perceived and crafted for accessible view
by an expert in reaching a wide and varied audience."
*Journal of Anthropological Research*
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