Social positioning and Commons's monetary theorising

The argument of this paper is that the neglect of John Commons's monetary theorising is in large part due to his contributions being insufficiently situated in his broader framework of analysis where community rights and duties are emphasised as essential features of social reality. It is further argued that the sophistication and significance of Commons's account of money can be appreciated once it is recognised as a variant of the recently developed positioning theory of money. It is shown that the positioning theory of money in its modern form serves to clarify the aspects of Commons's writings on money and can, in turn, be enriched by certain of Commons's insights.