Wolfgang Streeck: Why the Euro Divides Europe. New Left Review 95, September-October 2015.
▻http://newleftreview.org/II/95/wolfgang-streeck-why-the-euro-divides-europe
Anyone wishing to understand how an institution such as the single currency can wreak such havoc needs a concept of money that goes beyond that of the liberal economic tradition and the sociological theory informed by it. The conflicts in the Eurozone can only be decoded with the aid of an economic theory that can conceive of money not merely as a system of signs that symbolize claims and contractual obligations, but also, in tune with Weber’s view, as the product of a ruling organization, and hence as a contentious and contested institution with distributive consequences full of potential for conflict.