The Social Meaning of Money: Pin Money, Paychecks, Poor Relief, and Other Currencies

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By Viviana A. Zelizer

Published July 27, 2017

Lloyd Cotsen ’50 Professor of Sociology Viviana Zelizer’s 1997 book has been reissued in this second edition with an updated foreword and a new afterword by the author. In The Social Meaning of Money (Princeton University Press), Zelizer analyses the way society uses money in a domestic fashion, as gifts or donations, and how those uses of money might carry with them surprising social meanings.

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PAW’s December 2025 cover, with a photo of Michael Park ’98.
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Judge Michael Park ’98; shifts in DEI initiatives; a night at the new art museum.