Living Value Theory begins with a deceptively simple observation: value does not reside in things, nor in persons, but in the transactions between them. The five mediations are the structural forms through which this transactive process operates.
The first mediation is recognition — the moment at which one entity acknowledges the value-bearing capacity of another. Without recognition, value remains latent, unrealised. The second is exchange, which transforms recognition into a social fact by making value mobile across persons and contexts.
The third mediation is inscription: the fixing of value into durable forms — texts, prices, reputations, laws — that outlast the original transaction. The fourth is contestation, the process by which inscribed values are challenged, revised, or overturned. The fifth and final mediation is sedimentation: the slow accumulation of contested and re-inscribed values into what we call culture, tradition, or common sense.
These five mediations are not stages in a sequence. They operate simultaneously and recursively. Any given transaction will involve all five, though one may be foregrounded at any moment.