The pragmatics of payment: adventures in first-person economy with Bill Maurer

Abstract

During his public lecture at the University of Warwick, Bill Maurer touched on The Adventures of a Rupee (Scott 1782), a short story that examines the circulation of money from a rupee's point of view. As it passes from hand to hand the rupee is afforded an intimate vantage point on the social relations of money, elaborating what artist Emily Rosamond calls a form of 'first-person economy' (Rosamond 2014). A conversation with Bill Maurer has the quality of an adventure in first-person economy. One comes into intimate contact with the infrastructures and informants of the financial world, seeing this world from their vantage point, anew. Maurer's pragmatic anthropological method is rooted in a deep empiricism that proceeds from the rich detail of what people and practices do, yet it also draws out the political, social and conceptual significance of these doings. Maurer's most recent research has taken place in the world of payments and is the subject of a forthcoming book (Maurer 2015). On the morning of his lecture at Warwick I sat down with Maurer to discuss his current research and how that work fits into his personal intellectual trajectory. The result is an adventure in three parts. Part one, firstpersoneconomy, explores the lineages of Maurer's work and his pragmatic method. Part two, paymentspublicspolitics, examines Maurer's current collaborative research in payments. Part three, alternationoccupationprovocation, gathers Maurer's thoughts on financial alternatives and future directions in the study of money, finance and economy. Firstpersoneconomy LT: I'm wary of asking someone who punctures originary myths about money and finance to recount his origins and background, but I would be interested to know what led to your incarnation as an anthropologist. BM: Well, I had no idea that anthropology existed as a field when I was in school. In college, I intended to be a doctor because everybody is supposed to be a doctor and I had been really good

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