Value, Transvaluation and Globalization

Steffen Dalsgaard,Ton Otto

doi:10.25120/etropic.13.2.2014.3384

Abstract

Value has been a central concept in anthropology and sociology since the birth of these disciplines (e.g. Marx, Simmel, Weber). In recent decades the concept has seen a revival (e.g. Graeber 2001; Eiss and Pedersen 2002; Pedersen 2008; Otto and Willerslev 2013), but while it has been debated and discussed, assessed and evaluated extensively, there are nonetheless still many things to be said about it. This volume addresses a particular perspective on value through the lens of ‘transvaluation’, and how transvaluation may denote a process that occurs in our current world system as an intrinsic effect of contemporary globalization.

Highlights

Value has been a central concept in anthropology and sociology since the birth of these disciplines (e.g. Marx, Simmel, Weber)
Etropic 13.2 (2014): Value, Transvaluation and Globalization Special Issue | 2. In this way the notion of transvaluation pointed to a reversal of what was considered the ‘natural order’ of weak and strong, and good and bad, and not least how values are embedded both in personal desire and in individual action
Nietzsche’s argument somewhat paradoxically mirrored the individualist tendencies developing in what were the contemporary variants of Christianity, where piety and the hard work of individuals came to articulate central values of what became known as capitalism (Weber 2003)

Summary

Introduction

Value has been a central concept in anthropology and sociology since the birth of these disciplines (e.g. Marx, Simmel, Weber). We want to argue that transvaluation as a process related to domination and to reversals of a moral order is inherently at stake, when different value systems are brought into alignment or conflict through processes such as globalization, modernization, marketization, development and so on.

Results

Conclusion