Payments as performances: The affective turn in the commodification of value transfer

Abstract

This article argues that payments and payment infrastructures extend beyond economic and legal frameworks. The act of paying involves more than fulfilling financial transactions by transferring monetary value. This view obscures the moral, relational, technological, and political aspects of payments. This article employs the legal definition of payments as performances, broadening it through an anthropological lens. This approach reveals payments as processes rich in cultural and social implications rather than just financial transactions. The article demonstrates that new forms of capitalist expansion emerge through the performance of value transfer. This represents the ‘affective turn’ in the commodification of payments, where the sensorial, emotional, and relational dimensions of value transfer maximize profit extraction. The commodification of payments as performances raises new multidisciplinary research questions that help us understand payments as consumable products.