There are five relationships characterising circulation within or between agents, i.e., five forms of circulation1 :
- Gift: A gift exchange aims to be selfless and lasting. There’s no built-in obligation for the giver or the receiver, and it’s a one-sided act.
- Reciprocity: giving and receiving do not have to happen at the same time or come with any obligation. It’s simply a two-way exchange.
- Non-market exchange: not driven by price or value; other factors motivate the exchange.
- Non-capitalistic market exchange, the exchanger seeks use value from the good provided in return.
- Capitalistic market exchange: the exchanger seeks exchange value from the good provided in return.
In the case of use value, the price is determined by the ‘usefulness of the good.’ Contrastingly, in the case of exchange value, the price is set based on supply and demand.
Modern financial rationality (i.e. theory) presumes the fifth mode of exchange as the sole possibility. This limits our conception of a future, value-creating (rather than -extracting) financial system.
Footnotes
- Lagoarde-Segot, T., & Paranque, B. (2018). Finance and sustainability: From ideology to utopia. International Review of Financial Analysis, 55, 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2017.10.006
