Jan Söffner – författare

It is widely known that – at least in current societies - culture depends on money. Less attention has been given to the contrary fact: money also depends on culture. In its very foundation - negotiations, values, exchanges, debts and obligations, contracts and laws – money's functioning is tied to cultural practices, institutions, identities, and meanings. This interdisciplinary anthology scrutinizes the two-way connection between culture and money, and its implications for economic theory.In this book a wide range of established experts and newcomers from a range of disciplines investigate current economic issues from the perspective of their social and cultural embeddedness, their cultural and literary negotiations and their history. In doing so, they highlight what mainstream economics has missed, or wilfully ignored: they analyze the cultural genealogy of economic notions and concepts that have been thought of as abstract, ‘scientific’ economic terms – such as the concept of “value”; they point toward social aspects of economic action hitherto unnoticed by economics, (including power, the relevance of institutions and the role of misfortune and failure). The book also explores the looming question about what happens when the cultural foundation of money is replaced by machinic algorithms. The volume provides a valuable contribution to cultural studies’ current ‘re-discovery’ of economic topics while taking a purposefully critical stance on this notion, as it puts particular emphasis on not just the theoretical significance but also the acute relevance of its findings.The book therefore addresses academic audiences across a wide field of disciplines, such as the social sciences, literary and cultural studies, economics and history.

It is widely known that – at least in current societies - culture depends on money. Less attention has been given to the contrary fact: money also depends on culture. In its very foundation - negotiations, values, exchanges, debts and obligations, contracts and laws – money's functioning is tied to cultural practices, institutions, identities, and meanings. This interdisciplinary anthology scrutinizes the two-way connection between culture and money, and its implications for economic theory.In this book a wide range of established experts and newcomers from a range of disciplines investigate current economic issues from the perspective of their social and cultural embeddedness, their cultural and literary negotiations and their history. In doing so, they highlight what mainstream economics has missed, or wilfully ignored: they analyze the cultural genealogy of economic notions and concepts that have been thought of as abstract, ‘scientific’ economic terms – such as the concept of “value”; they point toward social aspects of economic action hitherto unnoticed by economics, (including power, the relevance of institutions and the role of misfortune and failure). The book also explores the looming question about what happens when the cultural foundation of money is replaced by machinic algorithms. The volume provides a valuable contribution to cultural studies’ current ‘re-discovery’ of economic topics while taking a purposefully critical stance on this notion, as it puts particular emphasis on not just the theoretical significance but also the acute relevance of its findings.The book therefore addresses academic audiences across a wide field of disciplines, such as the social sciences, literary and cultural studies, economics and history.

Which are the aspects of cognition not yet focused on as such by brain research? How can one deal with them?This book sheds light on the other sides of cognition, on what they mean for forms and figurations of subjective, cultural and social understanding. In examining nuances, exceptions, changes, emotions and absence of emotions, automatized actions and meaningful relations, states of minds and states of bodies, the volume searches new approaches to these phenomena in discussing the relation between the habitus – the habits and behavioral attitudes involved in cognition – and its embeddedness in a habitat. By opening a dialogue between artistic knowledge and the sciences, Other Sides of Cognition investigates novel avenues and concepts within science and research.At a Berlin-based conference: Other Sides of Cognition, scholars gathered from various disciplines to discuss these issues. This book broadens perspectives on the interdisciplinary field encompassing perception, action and epistemic formations. It offers a new view on the related field of habitus and cognition.