Keywords

1 Introduction

Cash has always affected interpersonal connections (Baron, Field, and Schuler, 2000; Jacob, Brinkerhoff, Jovic, and Wheatley, 2004). Baron et al. (2000) explain how currency’s history has shaped people’s identities and relationships. Baron et al. (2000) found that currency has always been more than a medium of transaction. In a pioneering study of the Ithaca HOURS, a local currency created and utilized communally in upstate New York, Jacob et al. (2004) found that most individuals in the area still maintained significant attachments to it despite its discontinuity. The money was issued to improve local trade, community, and economy, not just its monetary value.

Thiel’s (2011) essay on local money is the ultimate word in helpful advice. This document, “The Better Money: An Ethnographic Study of Regional Currencies,” offers the basis for the intended research. Thiel’s in-depth critique perfectly shows currency illiteracy. Thiel (2011) attacks economists’ thorough deconstruction of money and their flawed reasoning.

Thiel explains that money is the main tool for social stratification since it allows certain people to benefit while depriving others. This evidence supports Karl Marx and Max Weber’s estrangement and objectification motives. To effectively highlight the ambivalent nature and ubiquity of money, which makes it unable to fit in only as an economic concept, Thiel (2011) integrates the views of the aforementioned philosophers on money as a social phenomenon that permeates all social strata, fostering solidarity among different groups, counteracting isolation and consumerism, and making clear delineations. When there’s cash on the line, people from many walks of life can feel comfortable acting incognito. Thiel (2011) uses the work of others to illustrate that the expansion and development of money into numerous forms has occurred in line with the fast rise of society through industrialization and globalization, proving that money is a social instrument.

1.1 Statement of the Problem

The proposed research is ambitious on several levels; its primary goal is to draw attention to the dearth of empirical research into the link between monetary systems and social/cultural identities. To begin, the goal of the study is to fill in some of the gaps in our understanding of a field of sociology that has been largely neglected despite the many accomplishments in related fields that have been made on more nearby turf. The study of how people’s social and cultural identities intersect with monetary systems constitutes this subfield of sociology.

Buscha, Muller, and Page (2017) are concerned that the topic of currency and the socio-cultural identity of individuals has been remarkably understudied, despite the fact that Simmel’s “The Philosophy of Money” (2004) makes some progress in its attempts to debunk money and advance an understanding of the relationship between money, humans, and existence. Simmel, in his landmark work from 2004, stresses the importance of money’s structural function, its historical evolution, and its symbiotic relationship with value. Simmel concludes that money is the primary quantification of value because of its impact on people, its history as different currencies as units of exchange (such as items during barter trade), and its reconciliation under universal currency.

Money, as Simmel sees it, provides the frameworks through which human beings can comprehend life in its entirety. Therefore, according to Simmel (2004), money is social because individuals are the fabric of society. However, the foregoing is not supported by empirical evidence, which provides a strong impetus for the proposed research.

Buscha et al. (2017) demonstrate the breadth and depth of the relationship between currency and society through their investigation of the Euro and its potential to build unified identities among individuals of diverse nations.

The authors (Buscha et al. 2017) observe a dearth of literature on the topic of monetary values and sociocultural identity, therefore they set out to investigate this phenomenon across the European Union. According to their findings, the common currency of the Euro has had a little effect on Europeans’ sense of shared cultural identity across national boundaries. Despite these results, Buscha et al.’s (2017) research suggests that thinking of the European Union as a single culture based on the Euro is a stretch, given that its member states have vastly different cultural traditions and that most of the people surveyed only gave the currency a passing thought. When considering communal contexts, the early evidence shown in the Ithaca HOURS case provides sufficient justification for the connection between currency and culture. To address the theoretical void left by Buscha et al., an empirical examination of the link between money and social/cultural identity is done (2017), who discount the null hypothesis almost immediately in their study, defending their position by pointing out the diversity of the European Union and the small size of their sample.

1.2 Research Aim

The proposed study aims to systematically examine the many ways in which people’s sociocultural identities might be influenced by money in order to provide them with a sense of satisfaction and pride in their identities.

1.3 Objectives

The suggested research aims to accomplish the following in service of the aforementioned goal:-

  • To gain a comprehensive understanding of cultural identity by exploring its many facets.

  • To have a thorough familiarity with monetary systems, their components, and their defining features.

  • To investigate in depth how a specific people’s currency shapes their sense of cultural identity.

1.4 Questions

Based on the results of the literature review and the research objectives, the following research questions have emerged:-

  • How do people define themselves in terms of their cultural background?

  • What are the attributes and constituents of currency?

  • What is the relationship between a nation’s currency and its cultural identity?

1.5 Rationale of the Study

The study concept is fresh and great. The proposed study is grounded in the scant prior lierature that has sought to investigate the link between a nation’s currency and its sense of national identity. Evidence and studies in the past have mainly focused on tangential topics, such as the economics, politics, and philosophy of money, or the connection between investment behavior and individuality. This investigation, however, is interested in the monetary topic from a sociological perspective. Money plays a part in the social feeling and identity of a people, as was evident from the investigation into the instance of the Ithaca community in upstate New York that was stated previously. There was no real purpose to further investigate the cultural and social effects of money in the communities studied in the proposed research, which distinguishes it from previous studies. However, the current proposed study does not deny that the Ithaca HOURS case provided the perfect illustration of the current research and provided proof of the impact of currency on social and cultural connections. Questions like, “Can currency aid in reinforcing the pursuit of nationhood?” are at the heart of the research we’re conducting. Do people feel more of a sense of community when they have more money? The purpose of the proposed study is to determine this.

2 Theoretical Underpinning

2.1 Currency

Though simple, explaining cash’s origins and nature is difficult. Academics believe that money is flexible and inconsistent. Smith (1991, 1996) claims that early civilizations invented money to trade. As agriculture and manufacturing grew, people had surpluses of one good but shortages of another, requiring bartering.

Commodity money replaced inefficient bartering. Davidson and Lee (2014) dispute the idea that money evolved to improve bartering, but money’s initial purpose was to make trading easier. Salt, cocoa beans, rice, fur, and even animals were bartered for payment. Precious metals, first used as money approximately 1700 B.C. and as coins in 640 B.C. (Dittmar and Pepper 1992), replaced earlier transaction systems.

Nowadays, people usually mean paper bills, but they might also signify coins, banknotes, or even legal digital currencies. To grasp the complete picture, we must ask “what does money do?” And “how do people react to money?” To comprehend money, academics have had to delve beyond its economic and transactional meanings (Duffy and Ochs 2002).

Duffy and Ochs (2002), Jacob et al. (2004), Gelleri (2009), and Thiel (2011) share this stance, which encourages multidisciplinary research on money. Thus, scholars won’t agree on a single money definition. They should agree on several areas, though. This literature study addresses that question. Since money is both ever-changing and incredibly broad, this inquiry will start with its economic aspects before moving on to its sociological and cultural relevance.

2.2 Economic Aspects of Currency

It’s not surprising that most definitions of “money” come from the field of economics, given the importance of currency in modern society. Housel (2020) notes that conventional economic explanations of money are notoriously difficult to understand. Housel says that money is just a way to trade goods and services. Despite its brevity and clarity, many economists reject this definition as insufficient, preferring instead to focus on the materiality and utility of currency. Most people also think this definition accurately describes what money is for. Most likely, this is because of the widespread belief that money exists primarily to satisfy the need for mutual satisfaction inherent in barter-based exchanges. In his fundamental work from the 18th century titled “Wealth of Nations,” Smith (1991, 1996) argued that it was problematic to use the terms “wants” and “surplus” interchangeably. Inequity in the distribution of goods exists if “one individual, we shall imagine, has more of a specific product than he himself has occasion for, while another has less,” as Smith puts it. But if the latter is short on everything the former needs, no deal can be made. To get what they need, barterers may keep “a certain quantity of some commodity or other,” which “he imagined few people would unlikely refuse in exchange for the produce of their industry” (p. 29–30).

2.3 Sociology Aspects of Currency

George Simmel, in his landmark book titled, ‘The Philosophy of Money’, Simmel approaches the subject from two different perspectives, which he calls the “analytical” and the “synthetic” perspectives. The analytical view deals with the practical nature of money and how external conditions mold its meaning in society, while the synthetic view deals with the opposite, namely how money in return influences culture and lifestyles. Simmels’s analytical perspective sees the value of money coming from subjective judgments of the consciousness, and ultimately not being dependent on reality (Simmel 1989: 29). For him, this is the origin of the value bringing ‘essence’ of money. Simmel sees money as a “value” itself, and therefore not just a medium of exchange. This highlighted by Thiel (2011) who goes in-depth into the analysis of money to inform that money is itself a commodity. To this extent therefore, money-value exchanges between two entities require that two individual value estimations, be negotiated to a common value, and in this process, individual subjective estimations and objects desirability are transformed into mutual determination of its value (Simmel 1989: 52f). Simmel (1989) therefore essentially argues that the inherent value given to otherwise mundane objects provides a “socially created essence”, providing a stabilizing effect in the society. Through the process of random exchanges of various commodities, a certain commodity with the right attributes gradually turns into a form of money, i.e. a general medium of exchange. This monetary commodity, which may for example be a precious metal, becomes money and almost entirely leaves normal use, and becoming a general expression of value.

3 Proposed Research Methodology

3.1 Research Approach

As captured in the title of the proposed study, a qualitative method of research will be applied in the current study. Qualitative research uses video or audio evidence and descriptive narratives to elaborate on opinions, perspectives, and experiences. Qualitative methods allow people to communicate their feelings, which is ideal for studying money’s cultural impact. Qualitative research, as discussed by Creswell and Poth (2018), Flick (2019), and Bhandari (2020), enables researchers to investigate a topic in depth and develop novel insights and ideas about it, particularly from the perspective of people. The Creswell and Poth (2018) demonstrate that interpretivism underpins the qualitative approach. This concept changes researchers’ roles in research, according to Creswell and Poth (2018). The paradigm shift challenges positivist research philosophy, which views researchers as observatories. The researcher actively interprets concepts under the interpretivist philosophy of research, which is equivalent with qualitative technique. Thus, researchers using qualitative methodology must actively interpret knowledge elements they encounter during research, especially when collecting data. Flick (2019) adds that humans have their own objective reality and experiences that cannot be called upon using static data collection methods that do not allow participants to express themselves. Qualitative research was chosen because the current study seeks to examine how currency affects a population’s socio-cultural identity, which requires participants to elaborate and express themselves. Qualitative methodological theory is explained by Bernard (2000/06) and Birks et al. (2007). The mentioned evidence explains grounded theory and its usefulness in focusing on contextual details of a research sample population. Grounded theory allows data collection and inductive theory development, according to Bernard (2000/06). Birks et al. (2007) note that grounded theory can help researchers comprehend solution linkages between groups and research topics by including the sample population. In this research, grounded theory will be used to interview individuals to examine the relationship between currency and socio-cultural identity. Research shows that a secondary methodological approach must be considered when analyzing data acquired using grounded method. Interviews are a standard method of data collection in qualitative research, so Brinkmann and Kvale (2015) use inductive thematic analysis to triangulate participant responses to relevant secondary data sources to produce objective and referent interpretations. Using the most up-to-date literature and the collected data, inductive thematic analysis objectively categorizes data themes for interpretation. This was confirmed by Guest et al. (2012).

3.2 Data Collection

The proposed study will use face-to-face interviews facilitated by ZOOM to study a community and determine how money affects their culture. Keating (2007) suggests obtaining data directly from community members to conduct ethnography. Keating (2007) suggests case study and community observation. Interviews allow the research to acquire data from community members. Semi-structured interviews will allow the researcher to ask leading questions to support the main research question and encourage participants to contribute more information on diverse topics to get a more complete picture of their experience. In a review of ethnographic data collection, Emerson et al. (2011) found that recording field notes from interviews or other ethnographic research methods requires attention to detail and observation of verbal and non-verbal cues to gain insight from data and draw objective conclusions. The planned data gathering exercise will use 20 randomly selected community interviews. The current study attempts to meet age-based quotas to gain a better grasp of the topic, hence there will be inclusion and exclusion criteria. The research will focus on adults because the minimal age of involvement is 18. Accordingly, the research will seek 5 individuals between 18 and 27, 5 between 28 and 37, 5 between 38 and 47, and 5 between 48 and 57 for a total of 20. Qualitative researchers Holliday (2007) and Denzin and Lincoln (2013) agree that careful sampling is the difference between objective and mediocre outcomes. Thus, Holliday (2007) and Denzin and Lincoln (2013) believe that researchers must critically evaluate their aim and determine who in the sample population may help them achieve it. The current study intends to involve people with diverse money time and use experiences. Age groups will divide the sample size The proposed research assumes that it is interesting to validate the same from older people across age ranges to determine the sites of convergence and/or divergence, as younger participants may have a different identity idea with money. The people who call Yanbu Province home are the focus of this study.

3.3 Piloting, Validity, Trustworthiness

Three possible sample participants will pilot the data instrument after construction to assure objectivity in the proposed qualitative research. Maxwell (2003) discusses the interactive approach to qualitative study design and the importance of pilot studies to improve data instrument objectivity, understandability, and usability. Inductive thematic analysis will be used to test the validity of the pilot study’s data. The pilot and validity exercises will strengthen the data instrument and highlight areas of concern to improve the research before actual data collecting. Maxwell (2003) advises that data output must be verifiable, objective, and referrable to be trustworthy. This ensures dependability and makes findings transferable to other groups. According to Maxwell (2003), transparent and bias-free data gathering and analysis can achieve this. Inductive thematic analysis, a step-by-step approach to data processing, analysis, and literature triangulation, would provide the suggested study credibility and authenticity.

4 Expected Results

This investigation into the role of money in shaping social and cultural identity hopes to uncover some fascinating insights., particularly in light of the rise of digital forms of currency that seem to provide freedom and identity to younger members of the population. These results will help inform a fresh perspective on money, one that celebrates the social and cultural freedoms that a given currency affords its users.