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Georg Simmel reached the conclusion that evolution drives money towards an ever‐higher level of functionality while, at the same time reducing its importance as a substance. This article confronts Simmel’s one hundred‐year‐old hypothesis with the changes money has undergone since the publication of his book, The Philosophy of Money, since the 1970s. We begin by presenting the main conclusions of Simmel’s inquiry into the essence of money. We focus on his findings concerning the unstable relationship between the substance and functions of money and on the notion of money as a social institution. The second part of the article relates Simmel’s analysis to various aspects of contemporary thinking on money, and presents the “double anchor” hypothesis on the monetary order. Then, this hypothesis is used to analyse how technology‐driven processes are causing specific monetary functions to become increasingly autonomous. What this implies, in turn, is the de facto break‐up of money. For the time being, this situation has not actually arisen, but the stage‐by‐stage break‐up of money is well under way, at various speeds, and taking advantage of any available technical opportunities, especially in the field of information technology. The expected total break‐up of money poses compelling problems that call for new conceptual, technical and institutional solutions.

Over the past years, the teaching of third sector management and corporate social responsibility in business schools has been characterized by two main features: it has become widespread, and the assumption that a company's moral behavior has a financial correlate was abandoned. It follows from the second element that these classes are no longer meant to train managers to make a more effective economic contribution. The courses can now find a different, higher purpose, namely to emphasize the impact of the companies' and non‐profit organizations' social activities. This paper aims to address this issue.

The paper looks at two prevailing models of integration of third sector management in the curriculum and their limits.

The paper finds that emphasizing companies' and non‐profit organizations' social activities can be achieved if managers are trained in a way that better apprehends the stakes of these social activities. However, for business schools to make a significant contribution to this field and avoid missing the opportunities of this “non profit turn”, they must establish a vision of what these courses mean to them.

This paper provides useful information on the challenges of teaching a curricula taking into account the companies' and non‐profit organization' social activities.

The purpose of this paper is to show the relationship between food as a shared good (or public within the household) in the economic sense, and food as a shared meal in the sociological sense.

Quantitative data derived from a household budget survey (HBS) in Cyprus are used to set up questions to which answers are suggested using the qualitative approach of in-depth interviews.

The main finding is that the relatively high expenditure by elderly couples on food for home consumption may be explained by frequent inter-household, intra-extended family meals in Cyprus.

The paper provides evidence that household expenditure on food may not be directly indicative of household consumption of food. Researchers interested in household consumption of food should therefore be aware of the differences between household and extended family and, where extended family continues to be significant, they should be wary of using data from HBSs to analyse food consumption. One limitation is that the results are derived from in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of nine households. It may be appropriate to replicate the study, either in Cyprus or in similar societies where extended family remains significant, at a larger scale.

The evidence that household expenditure may not be indicative of household consumption suggests that questions on social context of consumption should be included in HBSs.

This paper draws together, for the first time, economic ideas on expenditure on food derived from the quantitative research of Ernst Engel on one hand and implications of the theories of Georg Simmel on the sociology of the meal on the other. The paper shows that some issues arising from quantitative analysis of HBSs cannot be explained using data from that source; this is particularly so where consumption of food is inter-household.

This paper seeks to explore the role of virtues in the context of management from a religious perspective. Its objective is to shed some light on the significance of Martin Luther's anthropology and theology of justification for a modern understanding of practical wisdom.

The paper reviews some passages of source literature by Martin Luther and – with side glances to Georg Simmel – reflects on basic structures of personal failure, as implied by Luther's metaphor of the self‐inclined man (homo incurvatus in se ipsum). By developing two theses, the paper proceeds to the question whether a protestant re‐formulation of practical wisdom could be useful to overcome self‐reference, not only on a personal, but also on an organisational level.

Faith and love, reformulated as virtues of practical wisdom for modern management from a protestant perspective can be understood as a receptive attitude and the ability to establish non‐instrumentalised and respectful relationships to humans. Lived by managers, they could help preventing companies and economy at large, to get caught in self‐referential, and inherently instable feedback cycles.

The change of perspective, inspired by Luther's theology of justification, enriches the notion of practical wisdom with new connotations and makes them accessible to the discourse over virtues in management.

Ethical practices in relation to indigenous research require that the researcher decolonise the research. This can be challenging when institutional guidelines are unclear but at the same time exacting in terms of the level of input required as a prerequisite for approval. This article explores the ambiguities of approval through a study of the application process for ‘my’ doctoral research to observe indigenous athlete‐role models engaging with young people. I draw on Simmel’s (1976) ‘stranger’ to enunciate the constraints of approval and consent within a decolonising methodology and to propose the possibilities of an ethics of the self.

Highlights the key elements of a mentor scheme which is running to support the NHS students on the part‐time MBA programme at Durham University Business School. Outlines the background and scope of the MBA programme in the context of the Northern Regional Health Authority. Examines the origins of mentoring and shows how the key elements from the ancient Greek tale are used as a model for the mentor system. Goes on to look at many aspects of the system in relation to both the mentee and the mentor. Draws on the writings of Georg Simmel to explain the uniqueness of mentoring and attempts to offer some solutions to the problems involved in the scheme. Forms part of an ongoing research project.

This paper aims to examine interbank market practices in a crisis to understand the importance of trust in dealing with control problems and managing risk in inter-organizational relationships (IORs).

A qualitative field study was conducted to collect data from two case-study banks and two key banking industry institutions.

The findings illustrate the use of trust-based partner-selection criteria such as guaranteed banks (i.e., banks granted special status by key banking industry institutions) and “clan-related” banks. In addition, the findings present several trust-based performance-control processes regarding the selected counterparties, such as negative expectations, goodwill and information sharing.

This paper highlights IORs and considers how associated control problems and risks are affected by trust in the context of a large-scale crisis.

The findings provide insights into interbank market practices during the global financial crisis with respect to partner selection and performance control.

The empirical case of the banking industry helps broaden our understanding of inter-IORs.

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the practice of having, using and constructing any canon in sociological theory. This paper argues that the elitism of American sociology and the forms of inequality it engenders are sustained by the construction of a canon itself.

This paper adopts a conceptual approach to examine the problems of research practice, academic writing, inequality and empirical translation that canonical thinking engenders within the academy and beyond.

Reflecting on the problems outlined, this paper articulates a more democratic agenda for treating canon in research and education by drawing upon standards of practice in ethnography, participatory action research and Southern Theory.

This paper interrogates the relations of domination that remain at work in the discipline and that which concern the elite position of American sociology itself.

By analyzing organizations as social actors and business relationships as social relationships, sociology can improve business relationship management. This paper aims to explore the issues involved.

A business relationship is an interactive exchange between two organizations embedded in a network of business connections. The paper reviews theories of social actions and social actors and the concepts of economic field and embeddedness to illustrate some social dimensions of business relationships.

Social action and social actor theories emphasize that co‐operation is always encumbered with conflicts, that consciousness about the relationship is fundamental for both strongly and weakly structured actors, and that actors (people involved in a business relationship) always have some freedom of manoeuvre. The concept of economic field underscores the specificity of each business relationship and the critical need for concrete analysis. The concept of embeddedness highlights that no business relationship is possible without personal bonds.

These are the first results of a deeper and broader research directed towards a conceptual model of business relationship management.

The paper can help managers to analyze more deeply the social dimensions of business relations with both suppliers and buyers. Consciousness, the ongoing presence of conflicts, the unavoidable role of personal bonds, and interactivity are always relevant in business relationship management.

The paper integrates sociological and business marketing approaches. It applies essential sociological theories and concepts to business relationship management.