Incommensurate abstractions and the (re)quantification of monetary amounts: how Western Kenyans measure and are measured in a behavioral economic experiment

Revolving around a behavioral economic experiment on temporal discounting conducted in collaboration with a behavioral economist in a Western Kenyan village, this paper excavates a specific type of (re)quantification. The participants of our experiment translated monetary amounts into units of what locally constitutes a satisfying meal. This ‘incommensurate abstraction’ is interpreted as being grounded in a disentangling of money’s numerical character from its potential of abstraction which results in a methodological impasse. Facing the loss of the stabilizing power of an incremental numerical system that allegedly enables and facilitates the commensuration and comparability of monetary amounts, we could no longer control the experiment and had to resort to innovative practices of ‘cooking data’ which, ultimately, were doomed to fail.