Julian Saurin @ Free University Brighton |
Preferences : Individual & Social
From preferences to money via commodities
Problems with preferencesAfter reviewing the concept of preferences we shall seek to distinguish in the orthodox economic fashion individual preferences from social preferences.
We shall also ask whether social preferences can best be understood as the combination of individual preferences, and suggest that sometimes social preferences - now beginning to be understood as preferences which are socially beneficial - cannot be adequately expressed by the simple accumulation of individual preferences. |
Use Value and Exchange ValueHere, after reviewing a number of important theories of value and valuing, we turn in a little more detail to Marx's concept of use value, exchange value and the commodity.
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The universal equivalent : moneyFollowing the discussion of the commodity and its dual use-exchange value, we show how money enters the economy as a distinctive and ubiquitous expression of a commodity in modern capitalism.
I recommend the video below which we will show in class but which you should benefit from prior viewing. |
The question of money |
Circuits of value |
This animation of David Harvey's explanation for crises of capitalism is very well done. For our purposes here, we're less interested in the crisis of capitalism so much as just describing a circuit of capital, and so the from the 05.00 minute mark onwards should be instructive for us. (Of course, by all means watch the whole thing).
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