Category: 16 (2012) [special issue]

2012 Special Issue: Thirty Years of Community and Complementary Currencies

IJCCR

Bringing together 17 new research papers from around the world, this special issue celebrates thirty years of community and complementary currencies, and assesses their impacts, potential and challenges. Edited by Jerome Blanc. View the papers individually, using the menu above, or download the whole issue here. IJCCR 2012 Vol 16 Special Issue Complete

Editorial Thirty Years of Community and Complementary Currencies   Jérôme Blanc D1-4
Historical accounts in the U.S.
Democratizing Money:  Historical Role of the U.S. Federal Government in Currency Creation  Saul Wainwright D5-13
Selling Scrip to America: Ideology, Self-help and the experiments of the Great Depression Sarah Elvins D14-21
Tax Anticipation Scrip as a Form of Local Currency in the USA during the 1930s Loren Gatch D22-35
theoretical issues
Community Currencies as Integrative Communication Media for Evolutionist Institutional Design  Makoto Nishibe D36-48
A comparison in transaction efficiency between dispersive and concentrated money creation  Nozomi Kichiji and Makoto Nishibe D49-57
Does Demurrage matter for Complementary Currencies?  Hugo Godschalk D58-69
Economic activity without official currency in Greece: The  *  hypothesis Irene Sotiropoulou D70-79
shortcomings and achievements
Sustainability of the Argentine Complementary Currency Systems: four governance systems  Georgina M. Gómez D80-89
Moral Money – The action guiding Impact of Complementary Currencies. A Case Study at the Chiemgauer Regional money.  Christian Thiel D91-96
Solidarity economy between a focus on the local and a global view  Krister Volkmann D97-105
Stroud Pound: A Local Currency to Map, Measure and Strengthen the Local Economy  Molly Scott Cato and Marta Suárez D106-115
Local exchange trade systems in Central European post communist countries Jelínek P., Szalay Zs., Konečný A. D116-123
An Empirical Study of the Social Effects of Community Currencies Hiromi Nakazato and Takeshi Hiramoto D124-135
CC Coupon Circulation and Shopkeepers’ Behaviour: A Case Study of the City of Musashino, Tokyo, Japan Ken-ichi Kurita, Yoshihisa Miyazaki and Makoto Nishibe D136-145
A two-marketplace and two-currency system: A view on business-to-business barter exchange  Melina Young D146-155
prospects and projects
Emerging trend of complementary currencies systems as policy instruments for environmental purposes: changes ahead? Hélène Joachain and Frédéric Klopfert D156-168
Trophic currencies: ecosystem modeling and resilient economies Marc Brakken, Preston Austin, Stephanie Rearick and Leander Bindewald D169-175

Trophic currencies: ecosystem modeling and resilient economies

IJCCR

Wealth is limited. We propose that value is infinite. Any currency isolates certain forms of value to transform into wealth, but those other forms of value remain even as they are undervalued. An economic system with a single currency will only recognize a very limited set of activities as valuable. As a consequence, many of the activities that constitute a functional community, and in turn a functional economy, lie outside of the value analysis of our existing economies. In this paper we present a theoretical currency model analogous to trophic food chains. As plants, grazers, and predators all have different perspective on value and operate accordingly, so do similar distinctions exist in society. We suggest that appropriately differentiated currencies from supranational currencies to regional, sectoral and down to timebanking and nonreciprocal exchanges can help better activate the value in the world, empowering communities and economies.

Marc Brakken, Preston Austin, Stephanie Rearick and Leander Bindewald
To cite this article: Brakken, M., Austin, P., Rearick, S. and Bindewald, L. (2012) ‘Trophic currencies: ecosystem modeling and resilient economies’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 169-175  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.023

Emerging trend of complementary currencies systems as policy instruments for environmental purposes: changes ahead?

IJCCR

Using complementary currencies systems as policy instruments for environmental purposes is a trend that seems to be progressively emerging in Europe. The Belgian Science Policy INESPO Project, which provides the framework for the research presented in this paper, is building on this emerging trend. The aim of the INESPO project is indeed to build new instruments for energy saving policies in the household sector based on the innovative coupling of Complementary Currencies (CC) and Smart Meters (SM). According to the rationale of the project, the new CC-SM instruments should promote behavioural changes in everyday life as well as encourage households to invest in energy efficiency. The idea behind the project is not to miss the opportunity of including an incentive scheme for behavioural change should a significant SM roll-out take place.

In order to gain insights for the design of the CC part of the instrument, a first step was to turn to projects that had in the past already used CC as policy instrument for behavioural change towards sustainability. To this purpose, projects which have pioneered this path in Europe were analysed. However, although this emerging trend for CC systems had not been left unnoticed by academics (see, for instance Seyfang, 2006 for an insightful discussion on the contribution of NU-Spaarpas to sustainable consumption, or Blanc 2010 and Blanc and Fare, 2010 for a system typology), it appeared that, to the best of our knowledge, no taxonomy of their constitutive parameters had been developed yet.

In this paper, we would like to contribute to the research on CC as policy instruments for environmental sustainability by presenting a selection of such CC systems and by proposing a taxonomy of their constitutive parameters. The resulting hierarchical classification of parameters is also intended to serve as a building tool for designing similar CC systems. However, in our view, “going down the bones” of CC systems, as it is done with the taxonomy, is not enough to make such CC systems thrive. Indeed, beyond the systematic list of parameters that will define the global architecture of the system, attention should also be given to “flesh” (e.g. expectations from stakeholders and carriers of the system) and “soul” (e.g. the conceptual framework used to build the system).

Hélène Joachain and Frédéric Klopfert

To cite this article: Joachain, H. and Klopfert, F. (2012) ‘Emerging trend of complementary currencies systems as policy instruments for environmental purposes: changes ahead?’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 156-168  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.022

IJCCR 2012 Joachain Klopfert

A two-marketplace and two-currency system: A view on business-to-business barter exchange

IJCCR

This paper is a consideration of the definition of barter credit as a secondary currency. The business-to-business barter exchange and the national economy function as a system comprised of a currency component and a marketplace component. Barter activity including the creation of a medium of exchange is recognized and defined in national legislation of some key jurisdictions, and is defined de jure as a part of the national economy. The barter credit is thus de facto defined as a currency secondary to the national currency which is the primary currency. I consider three points: 1. The rule of “fair market value” guides behaviour in the barter exchange, 2. The option for business to operate in both the barter exchange and the national economy is a mechanism linking the two, 3. The barter exchange functions in such a way that there can be anti-deflationary dynamics in the region, as articulated by Stodder (2009).

Melina Young

To cite this article: Young, M. (2012) ‘A two-marketplace and two-currency system: A view on business-to-business barter exchange ’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 146-155  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.021

IJCCR 2012 Young

CC Coupon Circulation and Shopkeepers’ Behaviour: A Case Study of the City of Musashino, Tokyo, Japan

IJCCR

This article introduces the history of community currencies in Japan, and examines the successes and remaining problems of the community currency coupons which are currently gaining such popularity. As a rule, in Japan, only shopkeepers can exchange community currency coupons for the national currency. Therefore, in order to expand a currency’s circulation and revive the community, each shopkeeper should use the community currency actively without saving or cashing in it immediately. Shopkeepers’ behaviour become crucial for circulation. This article will try to investigate the relationship between community currency coupon circulation and shopkeepers’ behaviour. We treat community currency coupon used in Tokyo’s Musashino district as a case and use a questionnaire-based method to examine the relationship. The research makes it clear that shopkeepers’ comprehension level, psychological resistance, and accounting procedure have a substantial effect on community currency coupon reuse versus redemption.

 Ken-ichi Kurita*, Yoshihisa Miyazaki* and Makoto Nishibe

To cite this article: Kurita, K., Miyazaki, Y. and Nishibe, M. (2012) ‘CC Coupon Circulation and Shopkeepers’ Behaviour: A Case Study of the City of Musashino, Tokyo, Japan’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 136-145  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.020

IJCCR 2012 Kurita Miyazaki Nishibe

An Empirical Study of the Social Effects of Community Currencies

IJCCR

This paper introduces the concept of social support as a social effect of community currencies and explores different ways of measuring it. We used a questionnaire survey and social network analysis of transactional records to conduct a comparative case study of two community currency organizations: Ichi-Muraoka in Japan and Bytesring Stockholm (BYTS) in Sweden. Our analysis yielded the following results with respect to social support provided by community currencies: (1) while the transfer of social support by community currencies does not affect the quality of life of all users in a significant way, it makes users aware that social support can be part of their lives if they become conscious of it; and (2) community currencies are peripheral and supplementary support sources for many local residents. These results show that community currencies are effective as a system to provide social support to local residents.

Hiromi Nakazato and Takeshi Hiramoto

To cite this article: Nakazato, H. and Hiramoto, T. (2012) ‘An Empirical Study of the Social Effects of Community Currencies’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 124-135  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.019

IJCCR 2012 Nakazato Hiramoto

Local Exchange Trading Systems in Central European post-Communist Countries

IJCCR

This paper gives information about Local Exchange Trade Systems in the region of former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary. The transition to a market economy proceeded in different ways in these countries, but similar histories in the last century (communism under Soviet influence) led to only small differences among the countries in the level of motivation and power of their civil societies – and subsequently, in the vitality of LETS circles. In the Czech Republic, the first LETS circle was established in 1999; however, none is active at present. Similarly, in the Slovak Republic, out of 10 to 15 LETS circles formed between 2000 and 2005, only one works at the present time. LETS in Poland developed in the early 90’s but soon declined even though a few groups are still active today. LETS in Hungary was very passive, but there have been new signs and initiatives since 2004.  The possible reasons for such LETS developments in the so-called Visegrad countries are also discussed in this paper.

Jelínek P., Szalay Zs. and Konečný A

To cite this article: Jelínek P., Szalay Zs. and Konečný A. (2012) ‘Local Exchange Trading Systems in Central European post-Communist Countries’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 116-123  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.018

IJCCR 2012 Jelinek

Stroud Pound: A Local Currency to Map, Measure and Strengthen the Local Economy

IJCCR

The Stroud Pound is one of the local currencies to be set up in recent years by UK-based Transition Towns. The paper details the first two years of the life of the Stroud Pound; both its authors were closely involved in the development of the currency and the paper is therefore a view ‘from the inside’ rather than a disconnected academic account. The Stroud Pound grew out of Transition Stroud, a community-led response to climate change and peak oil. It therefore has a design that seeks to build greater resilience and strength into the local economy. In this paper the researchers use the local currency as a research tool to explore issues such as: the size of the local multiplier; extent of trade between local producers; the dynamics of the local economy; and the diverse motivations of scheme participants. The paper includes: an account of the literature on community currencies, especially the work of Silvio Gesell; a brief account of Stroud and the results of a survey conducted amongst Stroud-based businesses as part of the establishment of the Stroud Pound; an account of the first year of the Stroud Pound and its impact on the local economy.

Molly Scott Cato and Marta Suárez

To cite this article: Scott Cato, M. and Suárez, M. (2012) ‘Stroud Pound: A Local Currency to Map, Measure and Strengthen the Local Economy’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 106-115  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.017

IJCCR 2012 Scott Cato Suarez

Solidarity economy between a focus on the local and a global view

IJCCR

According to conventional wisdom, money serves the following functions: it is a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. However, if we broaden our perspective, we might conceive of money also as a medium of communication, as a means to either change society, or to preserve a community in the sense of “resilience” against outside threat. It is this idea, which the following article wants to further explore, against the background of the newly established regional currencies (Regionalwährungen) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. If we are not solely occupied with the financial stability of a currency, but with how a currency can contribute to the stability and cohesion of a community and of society as a whole, then we are well advised to look at accompanying structures, physical and social, which may be subsumed under the notion of “solidarity economy”.

Krister Volkmann

To cite this article: Volkmann, K, (2012) ‘Solidarity economy between a focus on the local and a global view’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 16 (D) 97-105  <www.ijccr.net> ISSN  1325-9547 http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2012.016

IJCCR 2012 Volkmann