BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

MONEY A systemic definition 4)5)

← Back

"An agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange" (Bernard LIETAER: pers. comm. Oct. 28th, 1996))

LIETAER states: "Money as an agreement lives in the same space as other social constructs, such as political parties, nationality, gender or marriage. These constructs are real, even if they only exist in people's heads. The money agreement can be attained formally or informally, freely or coerced, consciously or unconsciously…

"The agreement is always valid only within a given community… Such a community can be the entire global economy (as is the case of the U.S. Dollar by treaty as long as it is accepted as reserve currency), or a geographically disparate group (such as Internet participants).

"Finally, the key function that transforms the chosen object into a currency is its role as medium of exchange" (Ibid)

In archaic cultures, a wide variety of objects have been used as currency: cowries shells, lumps of salt, beads, pigs, cows and generally any type of objects that can be given a so-called value and handled over in transactions, which are a specific form of communication.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint