Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2025
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Anthropology
Advisor
Ida Susser
Committee Members
David Harvey
Katherine Verdery
Marc Edelman
Subject Categories
Anthropology
Keywords
Money, Alternative Currencies, Spheres of Exchange, Crisis, Austerity, Social Movements
Abstract
Monetary unions are designed to foster political, social, and economic integration among member states by enabling the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital. Yet when a member nation faces economic crisis, citizens may respond by creating monetary systems of their own. This research asks whether such practices are simply demonstrations of human resiliency and adaptability, or whether they also challenge the very idea of a shared market and currency that do not align with national identity. Greece offers a crucial case for this inquiry. Following the 2008 debt crisis, austerity measures led to economic depression, mass unemployment, and a widespread shortage of euros, prompting the creation of alternative currencies such as barter networks, time banks, mutual credit clearing schemes, and digital currencies. Drawing on twenty-four months of ethnographic research, this study examines how these informal monetary systems function and how they shape social and political life. Data were collected through participant observation, extended case analysis, interviews, archival research, text analysis, and analysis of online databases. The dissertation is organized in three parts: (1) how local currencies provide access to basic resources in the absence of euros; (2) the different meanings Greeks attribute to money and monetary value, and how diverse conceptions of value influence social relations; and (3) how informal currencies redefine the nation by reviving past exchange practices, advancing solidarity frameworks, and incorporating migrants into their schemes. Findings show that the circulation of multiple, non-state currencies in Greece reconfigures understandings of money, value, and belonging. Informal currencies both support survival and generate new forms of solidarity, while also creating new lines of division along political, ethnic, and gendered axes. More broadly, this dissertation demonstrates that money is neither a monolithic nor cohesive formation, but a contested social process through which people negotiate sovereignty, citizenship, and justice. These insights contribute to anthropological research on human economies and offer policymakers a deeper understanding of how currencies shape everyday life, and the meanings people attach to them.
Recommended Citation
Panagiotopoulos, Helen, "The Question of Money: State, Protest, and Informal Currencies
in the Wake of Greece’s Economic Crisis" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6433
