Payments as performances

The affective turn in the commodification of value transfer

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2248304
AutoresCamilla Carabini (0000-0002-9051-6830, University of Milano-Bicocca, autor correspondente), Joy Malala (0000-0002-5759-4060, University of Milano-Bicocca)
Ano2025
Volume41
Fascículo4
Páginas6-10
Data de publicação2025-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAnthropology Today (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-8322.70008
OpenAlexW4413167176
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas45

This article argues that payments and payment infrastructures extend beyond economic and legal frameworks. The act of paying involves more than fulfilling financial transactions by transferring monetary value. This view obscures the moral, relational, technological, and political aspects of payments. This article employs the legal definition of payments as performances, broadening it through an anthropological lens. This approach reveals payments as processes rich in cultural and social implications rather than just financial transactions. The article demonstrates that new forms of capitalist expansion emerge through the performance of value transfer. This represents the 'affective turn' in the commodification of payments, where the sensorial, emotional, and relational dimensions of value transfer maximize profit extraction. The commodification of payments as performances raises new multidisciplinary research questions that help us understand payments as consumable products

Aesthetics · Art · Business · Commodification · Economics · Market economy · Payment · Sociology · Computer Science · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Finance