International Summer school, topic 2 - From Barter to Bitcoins: The Cultural Life of Money University of Southampton

Spend your summer becoming part of a world-class university

When you join the International Summer School 2018, you are booking your place to become part of an internationally recognised centre for world-class research, enterprise and learning. Across four weeks, 16 July to 10 August 2018, you will meet many of the students and staff that make the University of Southampton one of the top 1% of universities in the world.

Mixing with students and staff from across the world in the classroom, as you make the most of our modern campus facilities, or while you are relaxing in your comfortable hall of residence, you'll make friends and gain experiences to take home that are unique.

You'll explore the UK and its culture and heritage - both through exciting study in the classroom and on the road in the many trips and excursions.

You will take home fond memories of a cultural experience rooted in the hundred-year tradition of one of the UK's top universities.

Join us for a summer of British culture and explore our world-leading research.

When you join the International Summer School 2018, you will study up to six exciting topics across the four weeks you are with us. Each topic is delivered by an internationally-recognised member of academic staff at the University of Southampton working in partnership with one of our many enthusiastic postgraduate research students. Across three engaging and interactive classroom sessions, they will introduce you to their topic of choice, explaining why it is important to them and offering you an insight into the world-class research environment they work in.

You will find each topic is a friendly and engaging experience: you will normally study in groups with around 15 – 20 fellow students, allowing you to form good working relationships and have the opportunity to contribute and discuss in class.

For 2018, the proposed topics are:

• Monarchs: Icons of History
• Contemporary Global Security Challenges
• Stonehenge and the Ancient World
• Ethical Fashion and Textile Design
• Guitars, Music and Culture
• Terrorists vs CounterTerrorists
• Jane Austen
• From Barter to Bitcoins: The Cultural Life of Money
• Shakespeare
• Women in Film
• Games Design and Art
• British Moral Philosophy
• British Explorers and Empire
• Understanding Business in a New World
• Financial Management for Businesses in a Globally Competitive Market
• Innovation and Contemporary Business Challenges
• The Real Downton Abbey and Architecture of London
• Social Innovation through Social Enterprise
• Social Leadership for Impact
• Roman Britain
• Introduction to TESOL
• Art, Mind, Cognition - Psychology of Aesthetics
• Introduction to Contemporary Britain
• Economics

Each topic includes a guided trip or excursion to an important cultural site which is relevant to the studies you are undertaking, helping you to put the knowledge you have gained into a real-world context.

From Barter to Bitcoins: The Cultural Life of Money

This course explores what money really is. It expands our everyday perceptions of coins and notes by looking at the ways in which artists, writers and philosophers have revealed the social and political assumptions that money relies upon. The first class will introduce you to money’s contested histories, exploring how histories of barter have been placed against histories of debt and what this means for how money functions in contemporary economies. The second class will introduce you to the ways in which artists and writers have imagined alternative forms of money, exploring examples from counterfeiting to the gift economy. The final class explores what money means in our contemporary moment: analysing the social relations, and problems, that digital money brings.

Recognition

At the end of the course, all students will receive a certificate of attendance. You can choose to complete the assessed exercises for the International Summer School. If you complete the assessments, you will receive a transcript from the University of Southampton worth 5 ECTS credits.