Research Seminar in Cultural Anthropology with Gustav Peebles

Histories of the destruction of Commons abound. Consequently, many think of Commons as being, ipso facto, weak in the face of capitalist expansion. Against this frequent belief of the Commons’ weakness, this paper argues that central bank currency systems represent a range of ever-expanding and consequential Commons that, paradoxically, continue to not only grow under capitalism, but sustain and nurture it. To make this claim about systematic sharing at the heart of capitalism, the article first recounts the centralization of private money hoards into pooled, national, currency reserves; second, it offers comparisons between central bank currency systems and other Ostromian Commons, in order to illuminate this forgotten, yet immensely powerful, Commons that exists at the heart of everyday life.

Gustav Peebles is an Associate Professor at the department of social anthropology, Stockholm University. He has served twice as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at The New School in New York City and also led a research team that designed a new undergraduate program that addresses the multifaceted crisis in higher education in America today. With Dr. Emma Park, he is serving as Co-Principal Investigator for the Mellon-funded Sawyer Seminar, “Currency and Empire.” He is currently spearheading a Wenner- Gren Symposium—"The Price of Wealth”— with his colleagues Teresa Ghilarducci and Rick McGahey, a workshop designed to bring specific strands of economic and anthropological research together.