Money cultures after Georg Simmel: mobility, movement, and identity

It is well known that Georg Simmel observed a series of parallels between t he circulation of money in a mature economy, in particular its pace and rhy thm, and cultural forms of interaction in early twentieth century metropoli tan life. In this paper we are concerned to build upon Simmel's insights wi th specific reference to the relationships drawn between mobility, movement , and culture. The intention is not to endorse Simmel's universalistic clai ms about culture, but rather to use his approach as a way of understanding how, today, processes of circulation are endowed with meaning through peopl es interpretation and experience of mobility and movement. The paper falls into three parts. Drawing upon the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattar i, the first part seeks to demonstrate the importance of mobility and movem ent to the formation of subjectivities and to the possibility of shared sys tems of meaning around money. Following this, Simmel's The Philosophy of Mo ney is used as a starting point to consider how the circulation of money, i n particular the deployment of derivatives, has produced a series of cultur al identifications on the basis of different impressions of space-time. In the final part, examples of shared systems of symbolic meaning in relation to the movement and mobility of money are outlined in support of the argume nt and to ground the possibility of money cultures.