Thursday 17 September, 3-4PM via Zoom link here. Please contact Terry Woronov for any other enquiries.

Abstract

This paper takes up the challenge of critically explaining contemporary capitalism, drawing inspiration from the broad tradition of value-form analysis and value-critique.  The paper argues that a sensitivity to ‘the action of signs,’ specifically the semiotic logic of Charles S. Peirce and his doctrine of continuity, is helpful for bringing out the relationally interactive and dynamic quality of capitalist value determination.  The paper develops this framework through a focus on the phenomenon of remittance transfers between migrants in the USA and their home countries in Latin America and Asia and the rise of new financial technologies oriented toward these payment streams.  The paper demonstrates how this analysis shares much in common with a similarly non-foundationalist perspective broadly shared by scholars working at the intersection of anthropology and history.

About the Speaker

David Pedersen is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of California-San Diego.

Zoom Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/93945467645?from=msft