Dr. Noam Yuran studies the history and philosophy of economic thought, the history of capitalism and media theory. He studied in the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Sciences and Ideas at Tel Aviv University and in the Department of Philosophy at Ben Gurion University. His recent book, What Money Wants: An Economy of Desire (Stanford, 2014) follows the peculiar place of greed in economic thought. While contemporary economics systematically refuses to discuss greed as an economic phenomenon, its fingerprints are abundant in the work of economic thinkers who were eventually banished from the discipline.

 

Noam's teaching and research turn to the history of economic thought as a way to explore alternative conceptualizations of the relations between economy and society. While contemporary economics is unequivocally committed to methodological individualism, the history of the discipline professes various approaches which conceive of the economy as historically and socially embedded. Noam's research aims at demonstrating the relevance of such approaches to contemporary economy and society. His current project focuses on the sexual economy of capitalism. It argues that capitalism is distinguished by a unique gender economy: a unique economy that informs gender relations, as well as unique forms of desire and eroticism embedded in money and commodities.

 

Noam's current study of media focuses on the roles of old a new media in shaping consumer subjectivity throughout the 20th century. It explores the roles of television and the internet in sustaining different articulations of social identity through consumer goods.

 

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Publications

 

Books

 

What Money Wants: An Economy of Desire, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014.

 

The Erotic Word: Three Readings in Hanoch Levin's Work, Haifa: Haifa University Press, 2002 (Hebrew)

 

Channel 2: The New Etatism, Tel Aviv: Resling, 2001 (Hebrew)

 

 

Journal Articles

 

"Finance and Prostitution: on the Libidinal Economy of Capitalism",  Differences, Fall 2017, 28(3): 136-165.

 

"Fetishism or Ideology? A Contribution to the Political Economy of Television." tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 2017, 15(1): 171-190.

 

"Meaningful Objects or Costly Symbols: a Veblenian Approach to Brands", Theory Culture and Society, 2016, 33(6): 25-49

 

"Moralistic Failure: Mandeville and the Obscene origin of Economics", Social Research, Fall 2016, 83(3): 573-595

 

“A Religion of Unbelief”, Finance and Society, 2015, 1(2): 30-33.

 

"Television", Mafte'akh 8, Summer 2014 (Hebrew)

 

"Money", Mafte'akh 4, Summer 2011 (Hebrew)

 

"Reflections on the Global Financial Crisis Following Marx and Veblen", Theory and Criticism 35, Autumn 2009 (Hebrew)

 

"The Concrete-Abstract and the State", Aley Siakh 43, Summer 2000 (Hebrew)

 

"Symptoms of the State", Theory and Criticism 14, Summer 1999 (Hebrew)

 

"The Whore's Waiting Room", Theory and Criticism 10, Summer 1997 (Hebrew)

 

 

Chapters in edited books

 

"Luxury and the Sexual Economy of Capitalism", in Keith Hart (ed.) Money in a Human Economy, Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2017

 

"Revolution", in Ariel Handel (ed.) The Political Lexicon of the Social Protest, Tel Aviv: HaKibutz HaMeukhad, 2012 (Hebrew)

 

"Wealth", in Ariel Handel (ed.) The Political Lexicon of the Social Protest, Tel Aviv: HaKibutz HaMeukhad, 2012 (Hebrew)

 

"What's on TV: Terror, Liveness and the Ontology of Television" in Dana Ariely and Dafna Sering (eds.) Death Fear: Terror and its Occurrences in Art and Popular Culture, Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2010 (Hebrew)

 

 

Articles in art catalogues (selection)

 

"Already, Still and Not Yet: How History Is". Histories, The Israeli Center for Digital Art, October 2013 (reprinted in Maarav)

 

"It Looks Dazzling: the Sight of Wealth and the Demise of Opposition". ReCoCo: Life under Representational Regimes. MoBy – Museums of Bat Yam, May 2013

 

"Art as the Commodity would Be" for Vila, Elisheva Levi at Raw-Art Galery, Tel Aviv. August 2014 (reprinted in Erev-Rav)

 

"A Small Thing with a Big Mission" for Workplace, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, May 2015

 

(With Hassan Khader), Wnaderland: Israel-Palestine, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, 2006. (English and German)

 

“The Horror of War, the Horror of Sex”, in Wonderyears - New Reflections on Nazism and the Shoa in Israel, Neue Gesellschaft fur Bldende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin, 2003 (English and German)