Abstract EN:

Reflection on money has, so far, been neglected by sociology, which is more than demonstrated by the almost total lack of publications on the subject. The confusion between the economic concept of currency and the common meaning of the word "money" probably explains why such a topic has been put aside by economic science. Now money is at the heart of society's links and can be analysed, according to mauss, as a total social factor. Furthermore, this is a field in which recent innovations, themselves products of the interaction between two of society's players, namely the banks and their customers, have led us to reexamine the traditional representations of money. Statistical studies of banking's customers' behaviour, together with various publications, be they professional or not, show that we are experiencing a phenomenon in which money is becoming less and less real (the monetary symbol is losing all reality, payment is being spread over a length of time) which is coupled with a tendency towards intellectualisation in the handling of the instruments of payment, these being a source of privilege for some and exclusion for others. Likewise one can speak of a tendency towards privatisation in monetary relationships which goes much further than the simple personalisation desired by the banks in response to the "over-banking" of their customers. The recent innovations, which are far from being finished, are leading to relegate de facto the use of bank notes, themselves symbols of social unity, to a position of secondary importance. All this to the benefit of those means of payment which now, more or less, possess increased standing and which have unequal accessibility, thus making monetary relations a private affair between the customer and his bank, itself the true issuer of modern currency.