From the resurging interest in Karl Marx's critique of capitalism to the Occupy Movement’s challenge to the financial sector, money is still seen as one of the primary sources of injustice and inequality in the world.

In this two-part course, sociologist Nigel Dodd examines the nature of finance today and argues that new forms of money, from Bitcoin to the Bristol Pound, have the potential to bring about a better society.

By the end of this course, you will have learned:

• The barter and debt theories of money.
• How quantitative easing works.
• The collapse of the cash economy and how digital technologies are transforming our relationship to finance.
• What alternative forms of money have a progressive social potential.

Through video lectures, questions and suggested reading discover what money is and how it can be transformed to achieve social justice. Share your ideas and support your learning through our discussion boards and test your knowledge with an end of course assessment.

This course is designed for anyone interested in economics, the sociology of money or alternative financial systems and requires no prior knowledge. Whether you’re student, sociologist or you just want to learn more, we welcome you to join The Future of Money.

• Graeber, D., Debt: The First 5,000 Years, (New York: Melville House, 2011).
• Ingham, G., The Nature of Money, (Cambridge: Polity, 2004).
• Harvey, D., A Brief History of Neoliberalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
• Dodd, N., The Social Life of Money, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014).
• Piketty, T., Capital in the Twenty-First Century, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014).
• Narayanan, A. et al., Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016).
• North, P., Local Money: How to Make It Happen in Your Community, (Totnes: Green Books, 2010).