Bruce Davis Freemarket Money at the intersection of culture, economy and society: a social life of money and the inside story of .

Bruce DavisFreemarket

Money at the intersection of culture, economy and society: a social life of

money and the inside story of www.zopa.com

bruce@deep-hanging-out.com

The New Barn Studios Collective

Ethnographic entrepreneurOr entrepreneurial ethnographer?

Context: a social life of money

A quick example

“When is an ISA not an ISA?”

From object to thing

Object=-Technology

-Rational function-cost

‘Thing’’=-Social meaning-Social practices- Social capital

socialisation

domestication

ritualization

Meaning = neutral Meaning = Situational Usage = Social

Shift from looking at what a product ‘does’ to what meaning it ‘creates’

What if ....?

Key themes

• Increasing disconnection between the individual and the institutions / public meanings of money and economy:

– Breakdown of trust and social relations

– Divergence of values, goals and ideals

– Even the beginning of banks not trusting other banks….

• Consumers are ahead of the curve:

– No longer relevant to talk about adoption, but adaptation, domestication and interpretation.

– Consumers are actively creating their own meanings and usage of money products (as individual entrepreneurs).

Types of adapters - money

• Traditional Entrepreneurs - portfolio against uncertainty

• Lifestyle Entrepreneurs – ‘place in the sun’

• Domestic Entrepreneurs – surplus and abundance

• Personal Entrepreneurs – guilt free enjoyment/ play the system

A place to create your world of money?

objective subjective

Growth/fluidity

Surplus/Stability

TraditionalEntrepreneurs Lifestyle Entrepreneurs

Personal EntrepreneursDomestic Entrepreneurs

Everyday EntrepreneursTangible/PlaceHuman/Social

Control/ConfidenceReal alternative

Transforming value:from needs to creating meaning

¢ 8 per cup $4 per cup

www.zopa.com

Loan as gift?Interest as reciprocation?

Cultural catalyst? Cultural medium?

Freeing up “the market”?

• www.Mysociety.org – the flow of political (small p) ideas.

• www.Dothegreenthing.com – the flow of green ideas and practices.

• www.quickheart.com – from process to buying experience.

Imagining money...

"Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams—this may be

madness...and maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be."

Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes