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Alternative currencies are means of payment that circulate alongside—as an alternative or complement to—official currencies. While these currencies have existed for a long time, both society and academia have shown a renewed interest in their potential to decentralize the governance of monetary affairs and to bring people and organizations together in more ethical or sustainable ways. This article is a review of the ethical and philosophical implications of these alternative monetary projects. We first discuss various classifications of these currencies before analyzing the ethical challenges linked to the way they tackle social and environmental issues. We also examine the incentive-based and coercive mechanisms used by these currencies from an ethical perspective and debate the promises and perils of monetary decentralization and democracy. We conclude by identifying an agenda for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: With over a billion people inhabiting informal settlements worldwide, micro-entrepreneurs are vital to local economies. Complementary currencies have emerged as tools to sustain these entrepreneurs, providing alternative trading and payment options. This study explores the daily strategies of micro-entrepreneurs in Kenyan informal settlements using the digital complementary currency Sarafu. Our findings reveal that complementary currencies act as external enablers, transforming the local economies by enhancing payment systems, influencing supply and demand, and altering pricing structures. Significantly, when integrated with savings groups, they provide financial inclusion and collective purpose, strengthening local business networks. This research enriches our understanding of the mechanisms micro-entrepreneurs deploy to leverage complementary currencies for growth, emphasizing the need for further exploration into the role of complementary currencies in supporting entrepreneurship. Managerial Summary: This study explores how a complementary currency called Sarafu benefits micro-entrepreneurs in Kenyan informal settlements. Sarafu acts as catalysts for entrepreneurship by boosting local markets and empowering community cooperation. Our findings reveal that micro-entrepreneurs use Sarafu to adapt to the unique challenges of informal economies. They employ smart strategies like flexible pricing and inventory management to keep Sarafu flowing smoothly. Sarafu serves a dual purpose: a means of immediate spending and a tool for saving and growing capital. It also strengthens local business networks and creates a sense of collective purpose. For practitioners, this study suggests using complementary currencies to support local business networks, promote collective savings, and align the issuance of complementary currencies with local assets to foster sustainable entrepreneurship in informal economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complementary currencies have been promoted by 'new-municipalism' progressive movements to stimulate the local economy. Public administrations may engage in issuing complementary currencies or support them by realising expenditure and accepting them in payment. To assess and motivate the involvement of policymakers, measures to evaluate the multiplicative local impact of complementary currency programmes are required. The present research demonstrates a comparative procedure to analyse the local multiplier of income support payments provided by the City Council of Barcelona in euro and in a complementary currency, the REC. The results obtained show that the local impact of public income support can be enhanced when it is paid in a complementary currency and identify factors that mediate this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complementary currencies have spread to many places around the world at the beginning of the 21st century. Creating sustainable economic cycles and short transport routes are often the goals of introducing them. Due to their manageability, regional currencies can be embedded in debates of regional economics and sustainability. Above all, they are suitable for democratic experiments that can show in real environments whether currency designs work as examples of collaborative communities and research. One of these monetary experiments is the climate bonus, which is linked to the local currency Chiemgauer. The research path goes into the daily routine of a real laboratory to find out which methods would be effective enough to deliver carbon savings. The climate bonus creates a monetary network where people can try out new behaviors in a protected space. As a result, three years after the initiation of the project, carbon reductions are above expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2021 6(2), 1015-1025 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. The phenomenon of complementary currencies. - II. The bigger picture: the eurozone. - III. Legal status of complementary currencies in Germany. - IV. Societal challenges. - V. Collective design of money. - VI. Oligarchical and democratic ways of creating money. - VII. Conclusion. | (Abstract) For several decades, the phenomenon of complementary currencies has been emerging without the law having taken much notice. Only with the emergence of the first virtual currencies have there been serious discussions on this topic. The motives of the initiators and groups are very different. Is it about maximising profits or about ecological, social and cultural goals? The author advocates the integration of complementary currencies that have actively contributed to societal problems into the legal framework of the European Union.

Local Currencies, Local Exchange Trading Systems, and Time Banks are all part of a new social movement that aims to restrict money's purchasing power within a certain geographic area, or within a certain community. According to their proponents, these restrictions may contribute to building sustainable local economies, supporting local businesses and creating "warmer" social relations. This article inquires whether the overall enthusiasm that surrounds alternative currencies is justified. It argues that the potential benefits of these currencies are not sufficient to justify the restrictions they impose on money's purchasing power. Turning these currencies into effective channels of change, by increasing their scope and their strength, could severely hinder the pursuit of social justice, in a way that is probably not even necessary for achieving their objectives. The paper concludes that large-scale limitations of money's purchasing power are, therefore, undesirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassroots groups depend on dynamic and fluid interactions with high trust to retain their identity. At the same time, a stable structure and division of labour with rules and hierarchies is necessary to sustain their organisation and social influence. The study explores this organisational dilemma by drawing on the category of flexible institutionalisation. It enquires how actors experience this balancing act between spontaneous solidarity and hierarchical structures in the life of the collective. The study focuses on the PUMA complementary currency in Seville, which was the brainchild of a neighbourhood association, a degrowth group and the local community. Puma functioned as a mutual credit system with a passbook and later as a digital wallet. The research presents primary data collected in 2014, 2017 and 2019 and concludes that the institutionalisation of social innovations is purposefully incomplete and regulates spaces of spontaneity and caring to preserve solidarity and identity.

In the current scenario of global crisis, our official monetary system's inadequacy to provide solutions to the numerous serious problems affecting our society has become increasingly evident. This has led to the emergence of an astonishing number of projects that aim to rethink money. In order to make sense of these projects, it is necessary to explore the deepest meanings of money, as a multidimensional institution whose concrete nature and functioning are still object of a whole set of unsolved disputes. Under these premises, this article proposes an interdisciplinary reading of crypto and complementary currencies. The goal is twofold: on the one hand, the authors aim to shed light on the conditions which have to be met for the establishment of a sustainable monetary innovation; on the other hand, the article constitutes an attempt to use ongoing experiences as a lens through which to gain new insights into the general phenomenon of money and as a laboratory for exploring the possibility to move towards new socio-economic paradigms.

Keynes' project for an International Clearing Union does not respond only to the economic and political needs of the particular historical moment in which it was conceived, i.e. the establishment of an international money really complementary to national currencies. With that project, in fact, Keynes conceives a new kind money, whose positive character is to be un-hoardable. The non-hoardability of the bancor raises the issue of the nature of what is commonly known as 'liquidity', and allows not only to distinguish the liquidity that is proper to money from liquidity in general, but also to refine the concept of liquidity in itself. And finally, it allows to think about the very possibility of other forms of monetary complementarity, notably at different local levels.

The paper points out the importance of considering how the technical solutions adopted in the development of a complementary currency (CC) are related to all the other ingredients required for the establishment of a monetary institution. In particular, the authors aim to shed light on the social implications deriving from the choice to adopt a specific monetary architecture, and how this choice interacts with the other institutional conditions of economic transactions. In doing so, they present the results of empirical research on a clearing-based currency project, showing that monetary tools are likely to produce effects which, far from being a smooth projection of pre-existing social dynamics, are the result of a dialectical process that is also influenced by the way they are technically designed. Even in the case of top-down CC projects, new forms of sociality can emerge from a process of "learning by doing", where monetary innovations serve as a laboratory allowing its users to experiment new ways of combining social and economic interactions. For this to happen, currency projects must be sustained by a whole set of relational, educational and economic resources, but the way they are technically designed deeply affect the conditions required for their institutionalisation.

The last years have experienced an effervescence in the field of monetary innovation, concerning both complementary currencies and cryptocurrencies. The scenario of innovation has been intensively investigated with regard to economic and socio-political aspects. Against the peculiar multidimensionality of the phenomenon, the paper argues that the analysis should take the opportunity of grasping a cobelonging between the economic and the social. Whether they seem related to a proliferation of new forms of sociality (as in many experiences of complementary currencies) or to a disquieting desocialization (as in certain domains of the cryptocurrencies' world), the social dimensions of the new monies can be fruitfully analyzed by focusing on how they are consonant with certain basic conceptions of economic life. After a brief discussion of this point with regard to complementary currencies, the above-mentioned theoretical approach is used to investigate the cybernetic ethos of cryptocurrencies. The analysis shows that the socio-technical imaginaries of some cryptocurrencies (with particular regard to Bitcoin) call into question the relationship between human and non-human agency and are complicit with certain ideas of economic life, one of whose main traits concerns the demand for unconditionally "assuring" the economic and for denying the dimension of uncertainty.

The role of CCs as tools for rebuilding local economies through communities appears to emerge from the Italian experience. The projects launched in our country range from community of businesses – closed circuits in which members voluntarily exchange goods and services, offsetting debts against credits – to projects characterized by solidarity and participatory systems aimed at strengthening community relations as well as at promoting sustainable development models. These systems lie on the border between formal/informal economic activities. The proximity to existing projects, a certain ability to intercept emerging requests as well as the need to face the effects of the crisis caused by the pandemic has pressured some Regions to include CCs in their legislations as an attempt to move these systems to formal economy. However, the promotion of the complementary currencies is basically an investment in relationships, therefore stimulating trust and a proactive role in community decision-making is an issue that cannot be resolved just through legislation. Consequently, local institutions must rethink and improve their role in order to be able to become themselves pro-active subjects for the development of community initiatives.

Subsidies in the form of direct transfers from the government to citizens constitute a powerful mechanism for crisis mitigation and for the alleviation of economic inequalities. However, the connection between direct transfers of cash assistance to selected individual beneficiaries and the prosperity of their immediate surrounding local economy has not been sufficiently explored. This paper presents a case study which analyzes the effects of allocating cash assistance in the form of a local currency. It shows that, under certain conditions, such a transfer not only provides the beneficiaries with additional purchasing power to satisfy their needs but also that the monetary injection benefits local SMEs by generating additional turnover. Using transactional data from the system, some indicators are proposed to analyze the properties of the system, namely, user satisfaction, total and average income generated by local businesses, the local multiplier, the recirculation of the local currency, and the velocity of its circulation. Our findings indicate that cash assistance provided in the REC local currency could contribute to local economic development and financial stability by sustaining local commerce, while preserving most of the original positive effects of cash assistance in a legal tender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an ongoing debate on complementary currencies' (CCs) contribution to a transition towards resilient and sustainable economies. As part of this debate, this paper investigates which factors lead to significant acceptance and sufficient growth of a CC from a bottom-up perspective, i.e., based on its members' decisions. First, we identify the benefits and costs driving firms' use of CCs and find four factors that constitute a trade-off: credit gains, reciprocity expectations, coordination costs, and intrinsic motivations. Second, we use an agent-based model to explore how these elements determine CCs' success as a network. Our key finding is that the coupling of intrinsic motivation with preferential attachment – a phenomenon where members are more likely to transact with each other rather than with outsiders – may be the key to growth and acceptance: these results suggest that intrinsic motivation provides an incentive to join the network, but preferential attachment is the emerging economic rationale that drives firms' acceptance of CCs. The identified trade-off and the theory of intrinsic motivation-preferential attachment provide new avenues to investigate under what conditions CCs contribute to resilient economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External shocks, like the climate catastrophe or the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as intrinsic fallacies like the securitization of bad debt leading up to the financial crisis in 2008, point to the need for updating our monetary and financial systems. Ensuring their adequacy and resilience is an important factor for sustainability at large. This paper examines the definitions of "money" and "currency" in financial legislation as a foundational factor in achieving systemic resilience by allowing or hampering monetary innovation and diversity. From the unencumbered vantage point that the practice of complementary currencies offers, definitions of the terms "money" and "currency" are here traced through the laws and regulations of the United States of America, from the beginnings of modern banking to the recent rulings on crypto-currencies. They are both found to be used and defined in contradictory ways that are inapt even in regard to conventional modern banking practices, let alone when applied to novelty in payment, issuance and valuation. Consequently, this paper argues that basic legal definitions need to be reviewed and consolidated to enable the innovation and diversification in monetary systems needed for long term macro-economic stability. With this in mind, a terminology that is consistent with monetary practice--current, past and future--as well as the procedural difficulties of reforming laws and regulations is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of CCs as tools for rebuilding local economies through communities appears to emerge from the Italian experience. The projects launched in our country range from community of businesses - closed circuits in which members voluntarily exchange goods and services, offsetting debts against credits - to projects characterized by solidarity and participatory systems aimed at strengthening community relations as well as at promoting sustainable development models. These systems lie on the border between formal/informal economic activities. The proximity to existing projects, a certain ability to intercept emerging requests as well as the need to face the effects of the crisis caused by the pandemic has pressured some Regions to include CCs in their legislations as an attempt to move these systems to formal economy. However, the promotion of the complementary currencies is basically an investment in relationships, therefore stimulating trust and a proactive role in community decision-making is an issue that cannot be resolved just through legislation. Consequently, local institutions must rethink and improve their role in order to be able to become themselves pro-active subjects for the development of community initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the oil price downturn of 2015, the United Arab Emirates and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council countries have worked hard to expand digital payments in the interest of improved tax and revenue collection, transparency, and security. Yet despite a deep transformation and diversification of their payment eco-systems and the formalization of plans to become "cashless economies" modelled on South Korea and Sweden, cash continues to dominate payments in both countries. While industry players typically attribute the prevalence of cash in the region to questions of infrastructure readiness, transaction costs, and cyber-security, this paper finds that plans to expand digital payments at the expense of cash may not be well-adapted to countries with high levels of socio-economic inequality. It proposes a link between socio-economic inequality and use of cash in emerging economies, and concludes that it may be better to not view the relationship between cash and digital payments in binary zero-sum terms, until there is a better understanding of the socio-economic, technological, and policy context in which countries like South Korea and Sweden have managed to reduce their reliance on cash in favor of a diversified digital payments eco-system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community currencies are only sometimes economically advantageous. We focus on seasonal changes in money supply and assume that community currencies stabilize the money supply in a local community. This leads to additional transactions during seasons of insufficient supply of national currency. We hypothesize community currencies are therefore economically advantageous in a surrounding of seasonally insufficient money supply. We test the hypothesis qualitatively with two case studies, the German Chiemgauer and the Kenyan Sarafu Credit. We find community currencies are only economically advantageous in an environment of insufficient liquidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sinapsis: Revista de Investigaciones de la Escuela de Administración y Mercadotecnia del Quindío EAM is the property of Escuela de Administracion y Mercadotecnia del Quindio and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The commons is a concept increasingly used with the promise of creating new collective wealth. In the aftermath of the economic and financial crises, finance and money have been criticized and redesigned to serve the collective interest. In this article, we analyze three types of complementary currency (CC) systems: community currencies, inter-enterprise currencies, and cryptocurrencies. We investigate whether these systems can be considered as commons. To address this question, we use two main theoretical frameworks that are usually separate: the "new commons" in organization studies and the "common good" in business ethics. Our findings show that these monetary systems and organizations may be considered as commons under the "common good" framework since they promote the common interest by creating new communities. Nevertheless, according to the "new commons" framework, only systems relying on collective action and self-management can be said to form commons. This allows us to suggest two new categories of commons: the "social commons," which fit into both the "new commons" and the "common good" frameworks, and the "commercial commons," which fit the "common good" but not the "new commons" framework. This research advances a new conceptualization of the commons and of the ethical implications of CCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies have attributed the usage of community currencies to government support, community solidarity, business networks and social networks. Using a mixed-methods approach, this paper examines the role of networks in determining the usage of community currencies in an ethnically heterogeneous community. It argues that while networks are important in determining the usage of community currencies, it is not the presence of networks per se that is important, but the types of networks, the level of trust within them and the kind of information passed on within them, as well as the number of networks to which an individual belongs. The paper makes a contribution by offering a more nuanced view of the role of networks in the adoption of community currencies among the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question whether complementary currencies can help us think and practice politics in new and different ways which contribute to democratic change and civic empowerment in our times. The space created by the Sardex complementary currency circuit in Sardinia (2009-to date) seems to leave enough room for the emergence of a collective micropolitical consciousness. At the same time, the design of a technological and financial infrastructure is also an alternative political, or “alter-political” choice. Both are alternative to hegemonic politics and to typical modes of mobilization and contestation. Thus, the Sardex circuit can best be understood as an alter-political combination of the bottom-up micropolitics of personal interactions within the circuit and of the politics of technology implicit in the top-down design of the technological and financial infrastructure underpinning the circuit. The Sardex experience suggests that a market that mediates the (local) real economy only and shuts out the financial economy can provide economic sustainability by supporting SMEs, supply a shield against the adverse effects of financial crises, and counteract the fetishization of money by disclosing daily its roots in social construction within a controlled environment of mutual responsibility, solidarity, and trust. We broached the Sardex currency and circuit in such terms in order to illustrate a significant and effective instance of alter-politics in our times and also to indicate, more specifically, community financial innovations which could be taken up and re-deployed to democratize or “commonify” local economies.

This paper addresses the question whether complementary currencies can help us think and practice politics in new and different ways which contribute to democratic change and civic empowerment in our times. The space created by the Sardex complementary currency circuit in Sardinia (2009-to date) seems to leave enough room for the emergence of a collective micropolitical consciousness. At the same time, the design of a technological and financial infrastructure is also an alternative political, or "alter-political" choice. Both are alternative to hegemonic politics and to typical modes of mobilization and contestation. Thus, the Sardex circuit can best be understood as an alter-political combination of the bottom-up micropolitics of personal interactions within the circuit and of the politics of technology implicit in the top-down design of the technological and financial infrastructure underpinning the circuit. The Sardex experience suggests that a market that mediates the (local) real economy only and shuts out the financial economy can provide economic sustainability by supporting SMEs, supply a shield against the adverse effects of financial crises, and counteract the fetishization of money by disclosing daily its roots in social construction within a controlled environment of mutual responsibility, solidarity, and trust. We broached the Sardex currency and circuit in such terms in order to illustrate a significant and effective instance of alter-politics in our times and also to indicate, more specifically, community financial innovations which could be taken up and re-deployed to democratize or "commonify" local economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Öffentliche und Gemeinwirtschaftliche Unternehmen (ZÖgU) / Journal for Public & Nonprofit Services is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The global financial and economic crisis accelerated and deepened the crisis in the European Union which causes originated in its political and institutional framework. In the context of the difficulties to the states and the market to resolve increasing inequality, poverty and social isolation, civil society initiatives and organizations in the social economy have become an effective tool against the crisis. In this regard social finance has speeded up its development and dissemination. The paper aims at discussing trends and perspectives to social money in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of complementary currencies has experienced in recent years a significant evolution both in terms of the sheer number of initiatives and in terms of their ability to attract the attention of academia, politics and media. The spread of these experiments and the increasing involvement of public institutions have led to a growing demand for evaluation procedures specifically targeted at CCs, both as economic experiments and as public policy initiatives. The task of evaluation confronts the peculiar multidimensional character of complementary currencies. One of the traits that is commonly recognized as a characteristic of CCs is indeed the presence, alongside more strictly economic dimensions, of multiple social dimensions and aims. Some evaluation models therefore attempt to measure—through the identification of multiple variables, and of corresponding indicators—the impacts of complementary currencies in terms of a wide range of expected social or economic objectives. This paper intends to question the sufficiency of similar approaches. We will argue that those approaches risk to overshadow a peculiar form of sociality which may emerge particularly in certain types of complementary currency experiments. The paper highlights the significance of this sociality and the relevance of its analysis for the advancement of evaluation practices in the field of monetary innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current climate of fiscal austerity has seen a resurgence in 'complementary currencies' as local and regional governments look for ways to use under-utilized assets, maintain employment and avoid local economic decline. The authors explore how local and regional governments can facilitate complementary currencies to reduce the impact of external economic shocks and enable their economies to continue to function in the face of austerity. They recommend that localities consider participating in existing complementary currency 'circles'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores which private moneys qualify as (disruptive) social innovations. A case study into 30 Dutch-based complementary currencies and cryptocurrencies was conducted to understand the functioning of different designs of private money systems as well as the motivations and objectives of involved social innovators. We conclude that private moneys generally can be qualified as social innovations but that their potential for disruptiveness is limited by design. It is the externalities that come with the public and network nature of monetary systems that are likely to impede disruption by private (digital) moneys. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The commons are alternative social and economic practices for fostering community development and regeneration. While finance is increasingly criticized as a trigger for individualism, community currencies are one of the financial initiatives that aim to reorganize finance in the collective interest. We analyze to what extent these alternative systems allow finance to constitute common goods or ‘commons’. To this end, we investigate the commoning practices through which resources are created, distributed, and consumed in a way that promotes new collectives. We analyze the extent to which community currencies can be considered as commons. Our findings suggest that community currencies have strong collective attributes such as community building, as well as the insertion of solidarity and cooperative values in money. Finally, we inquire into the limits and ambiguities of community currencies to represent an alternative to the capitalist economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to found a set of ethical guidelines in respect of specific macroeconomic problems, so that the failure to fulfill these guidelines can be considered both the root of economic crises like the current one, and the reason why such crises are ethically unacceptable. The main topic I will face is the ethical aspect of the instrument of credit. I will do that by means of an examination of what being "ethical"within intersubjective life means for Hegel. Credit would assume the role of a major instrument aimed at putting the material and relational conditions for a full reciprocal recognition and fulfillment of desires among economic agents who originally have imbalanced instruments and discrepant times in their capacity to claim recognition and recognize others' desires. The development and maximization of reciprocal trust, expectation and "attraction" are established as ethical and teleological categories and their interpretation is also utilized to hint at two other issues, theutilization of credit to set up a Ponzi scheme and the debate about the necessity of a flexible exchange rate between the currencies of different countries-relevant in the Euro area today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Organizations / Revista Internacional de Organizaciones (RIO) is the property of Analisi Social i Organitzativa grup de recerca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Various examples of complementary currencies have recently emerged in Europe in response to the impact of the 2007 financial crisis. They have been variously labelled as social, local and alternative money but their economic meaning has still to be discussed. On the one hand, they have been hailed as innovative tools for socioterritorial policies with a focus on localist, anti-globalist and anti-capitalist values. On the other, the emphasis on the value of currencies as instruments of alternative territorial development runs the risk of overshadowing issues concerning the specific features of such projects. The first part of this paper puts forward an interpretation of the current situation as a crisis of the liquidity principle and suggests that the principle of clearing instead represents the primary point of reference for any institutional arrangement aimed at restoring a balanced relationship between lenders and borrowers. A critical review of known European complementary monetary circuits is followed by examination of the Sardex clearing system. The paper then goes on to argue by means of a stock-flow consistent model that complementary monetary circuits can serve to stabilise local economic systems. In particular, a local clearing union for local exchanges has the effect of stabilising the profits of firms while attenuating the impact of the credit crunch at same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most widespread implications of the Great Financial Crisis has been the increase in bankruptcies across advanced economies. The traditional approach to the problem of insolvencies is constrained by deeply ingrained concepts of money and credit and by the institutions in which those concepts are embodied, according to which the only way to discharge a debt is a payment in money. This paper deals with a peculiar project elaborated within the Italian Ministry of Justice to address the problem of the growing amount of uncollectibles involved in bankruptcy procedures. The project entails a new form of articulation between money and credit, which overturns the traditional logic of liquidation by transforming creditors of bankruptcy procedures, passively waiting to be paid, into active operators, capable of sustaining demand. This goal is pursued by converting part of their credits into purchasing power that can be immediately spent in the auctions for the assets of bankrupt companies, thereby increasing the efficiency of bankruptcy procedures, accelerating the reallocation of assets and maximising the satisfaction of creditors. The projects may be seen as a complementary currency characterised by a functional, and not by a territorial, delimitation. It incorporates some of the features that have been recently experimented with, with varying degree of success, within both the official and alternative monetary systems: endogenous money creation, targeted loans and demurrage. The present paper aims at illustrating the theoretical underpinnings of the project and its implication for the question of devising an alternative to current financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community action for sustainability is a promising site of socio-technical innovation. Here we test the applicability of co-evolutionary niche theories of innovation diffusion (strategic niche management, SNM) to the context of ‘grassroots innovations’ (GIs). We present new empirical findings from an international study of 12 community currency niches (such as Local Exchange Trading Schemes, time banks, and local currencies). These are parallel systems of exchange, designed to operate alongside mainstream money, meeting additional sustainability needs. Our findings confirm SNM predictions that niche-level activity correlates with diffusion success, but we highlight additional or confounding factors, and how niche theories might be adapted to better fit civil society innovations. In so doing, we develop a model of GI niche diffusion which extends existing work and tailors it to this specific context. The paper concludes with a series of theoretically informed recommendations for practitioners and policy-makers to support the development and potential of GIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Tausch- or barter-centers that existed in Germany during the 1940s. These small but unique platforms for the exchange of consumer durables represent an almost unknown chapter in economic history. This contribution aims to describe the major characteristics of these organizations and to investigate the implications of these findings for community currencies in general. Design/methodology/approach – An analysis is conducted of primary sources, which bring to light different types of these alternative markets. This is complemented by a comprehensive study of secondary sources. Findings – Theoretically, these exchange systems are interpreted as operating within boundaries. The results of this research project are not only relevant for our understanding of the war and post-war economy in Germany, at a time when the market mechanism was suppressed, this peculiar case also sheds some light on the functioning of markets. Furthermore, a better knowledge of the structure of the Tausch- or barter-centers is relevant with regard to our understanding of the functioning of community currencies in general. Originality/value – This paper provides the first survey of these organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crucial argument in the debate around smart meter deployment in the EU is the potential for households to save energy. One strand of research in this field has investigated the effects on household energy consumption of the feed-back provided by smart meters. However, another aspect that deserves attention is the motivation for households to use the feed-back to save energy. This paper explores how the emerging trend of using complementary currencies for sustainability policies could translate into new interventions adapted to the smart meter deployment and capable of promoting more autonomous forms of motivation compared to interventions using official currencies. Three systems designs (rewarding, regulatory and hybrid) are presented and discussed within the framework of self-determination theory. Because the rewarding system S1 can contribute positively people's basic needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, it could lead to more autonomous forms of motivation. The conclusions regarding the regulatory system S2 are less clear, although the hybrid variant S3 that integrates mechanisms from the rewarding system into the regulatory system could be perceived as more consonant with people's basic need for autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the history and theory of complementary currencies before considering the prospects for increasing their current scope to become significant economic entities through which people – particularly those marginalised in, or excluded from, the formal economy – can secure their livelihood. A model of tax-driven money, based on the tax anticipation schemes of the 1930s is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]