The Circulation and Transformation of Value in Transborder Currencies
Magdalena Villarreal, Lya Niño and Joshua Greene
The paper will focus on diverse ‘currencies’ (monetary and non-monetary) circulating in transborder contexts and the ways in which values are transformed in the process.
Such currencies are an important element in the everyday management of economic life, and they become more evident in transborder contexts, wherein different monetary currencies are used.
The basis for this paper is a research project (Juggling Currencies in Transborder Contexts) we are carrying out in two sites: one is the interaction and exchange taking place between the twin cities of Calexico (in the US) and Mexicali (in Mexico), and the other concerns Sabinilla, a small community in Western Mexico that is closely linked to Hawaii, where many of its citizens live and work.
In our presentation we aim to discuss the issue of value as represented in different currencies and the processes of transformation it undergoes under particular circumstances, based on ethnographic scenarios concerning both sites. In so doing, we hope to shed light on the complex nature of money and currencies, teasing out different forms of signification and valuation.