LUNCH TIME SEMINAR | Purchasing power as a promise : Anthropological views on « purchasing power »

In this presentation I would like to place this concept “purchasing power” at the heart of current debates in economic anthropology and more widely in the social disciplines. So far, this concept is unfamiliar in my discipline, yet it is of concrete concern for politicians and bureaucrats, and it matters a lot to individuals in their daily lives. I situate purchasing power in the work of the anthropology’s founders such as Marcel Mauss and Karl Polanyi, while seeking to add a dimension to contemporary research on money and markets. Purchasing power refers to the goods and services that a household’s income can afford to buy. Narratives of the current crisis transform this notion into stereotypical incantations about guaranteeing social order and peace, seen as how people in general fit into a ‘consumer society’. It is repeatedly invoked by the powers, the media, and the public in both North and South regions. Citizenship implies a promise of access to consumer goods, ranging under highly variable commercial conditions from simple foodstuffs to luxuries. Status and social position are often measured in money and what it buys. This promise cannot be realised equally for all classes. The aim here is to investigate places where purchasing power—whether considered as inflation, unequal incomes, currency depreciation, or changing forms of payment—is buried from view in the economic category of ‘consumption’. It can also provoke social conflict, even public and domestic violence in times of crisis. This means looking at the issue not only as a singular collective moment, but also as how subjective social actors experience the contemporary world. This makes it a key aspect for politics and economy; consumption is both at once. Purchasing power raises questions about relations between state actors and classes of citizens, money, markets and households. Our approach is comparative and conceptual, being based on ethnographic and historical case studies.