Complementary Currencies as a Socio-Technical Innovation. Evidence from a local clearing union in Italy

Authors

  • Marco Fama University of Calabria
  • Elena Musolino University of Bergamo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v13i1p462

Keywords:

Complementary Currencies, Local Clearing Unions, LINX, Money, Mutual Credit Systems

Abstract

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.

Author Biographies

Marco Fama, University of Calabria

Marco Fama (PhD) is a Post-Doc Researcher at the University of Calabria and an Adjunct Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Bergamo. He was Visiting Researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam and at Centro de Estudios Sociológicos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His wide research interests include: microfinance, international cooperation, poverty reduction policies, monetary innovations, rural development and environmental issues. He authored the book (in Italian) The government of poverty at the time of (micro)finance (Verona: ombre corte), and published numerous articles in Italian and international journals.

Elena Musolino, University of Bergamo

Elena Musolino is a post-doc researcher in Sociology at the University of Bergamo. Her work focuses mainly on the intersection of environmental change, development and social conflicts. She has also been engaged in national and international projects on issues related to gender, migration, public goods and local development. She published several articles in Italian and international journals.

References

Aglietta M., A. Orléan (2002), La monnaie entre violence et confiance, Paris: Odile Jacob.

Aglietta M., A. Orléan (1998), La monnaie souveraine, Paris: Editions Odile Jacob.

Amato M., L. Fantacci (2013), Moneta Complementare. Sai cos’è?, Milano: Bruno Mon-dadori.

Amato M., L. Fantacci (2012), Fine della finanza, Roma: Donzelli.

Bank of Italy (2019), “L’economia della Lombardia”, Economie regionali, 3, June 2019.

Bindewald L., M. Nginamau, and C. Place (2013), Validating Complementary and Commu-nity Currencies as an Efficient Tool for Social and Solidarity Economy Networking and Development. (http://www.unrisd.org/sseconf). Accessed October 26, 2019.

Blanc J. (2011), “Classifying “CCs”: Community, Complementary and Local Currencies types and generations”, International Journal of Community Currency Research, 15: 4-10.

Blanc J. (2013), “Penser la pluralité des monnaies à partir de Polanyi: Un essai de typolo-gie”, in Hillenkamp I. (eds.), Socioéconomie et démocratie. L’actualité de Karl Po-lanyi, Toulouse: ERES, pp. 241-269.

Bode S. (2004), Potentiale regionaler Komplementar währungen zur Förderung einer en-dogenen Regionalentwicklung. Thesis, Osnabrück University.

Boonstra L., A. Klamer, E. Karioti, J. Do Carmo, and S. Geenen (2013), Complementary Currency Systems. Social and Economic Effects of Complementary Currencies, Rotter-dam: Erasmus University.

Braga E., A. Fumagalli (eds.). (2015), La moneta del comune, Milano: alfabeta2 and Deri-veApprodi.

Davies G. (1994), A History of Money: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, Cardiff: University of Wales Press.

DeMeulenaere S. (2008), “2007 Yearly Report of the Worldwide Database of Comple-mentary Currency Systems”, International Journal of Community Currency Research, 12: 2-19.

Derudder P., M. Lepesant (2011), Monnaie locale complémentaire, (http://monnaie‐locale‐complementaire.net/category/fondamentaux). Accessed Sep-tember 26, 2019.

Dittmer K. (2013), “Local Currencies for Purposive Degrowth? A Quality Check of Some Proposals for Changing Money‐as‐usual”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 54: 3‐13.

Doria L., L. Fantacci (2017), “Evaluating Complementary Currencies: from the Assessment of Multiple Social Qualities to the Discovery of a Unique Monetary Sociality”, Quality & Quantity, 52: 1291-1314.

Evans M.S. (2009), “Zelizer’s Theory of Money and the Case of Local Currencies”, Envi-ronment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 41(5): 1026-41.

Fama M. (2017), Il governo della povertà ai tempi della (micro)finanza, Verona: ombre corte.

Fama M., A. Fumagalli, and S. Lucarelli (2019), “Cryptocurrencies, Monetary Policy and New Forms of Monetary Sovereingty”, International Journal of Political Economy, 48(2): 174-194.

Fare M., P. Ould Ahmed (2014), Complementary currency systems questioning social and economic changes, (https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:ird-01088492). Accessed October 29, 2019.

Forsberg P. (2018), “Technology as integrated into institutions: expanding the list of ac-tors affecting institutional conditions of cooperation”, International Journal of the Commons, 12(1): 82–110.

Gómez G. (2019), “Money as an Institution: Rule versus Evolved Practice? Analysis of Multiple Currencies in Argentina”, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 12(2): 80.

Graeber D. (2014), Debt: The First 5000 Years, London: Melville House.

Graziani A. (2003), The Monetary Theory of Production, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Grierson P. (1977), The Origins of Money, London: Athlone Press and University of Lon-don.

Ingham G. (2004), The Nature of Money, Cambridge: Polity.

Lucarelli S., L. Gobbi (2016), “Local clearing unions as stabilizers of local economic sys-tems: a stock flow consistent perspective”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 50(5): 1397–1420.

Kennedy M., B. Lietaer (2004), Regionalwährungen: Neue Wege zu nachhaltigem Wohl-stand, München: Riemann.

Keynes J.M. (1963), “On the Theory of a Monetary Economy”, Nebraska Journal of Eco-nomics and Business, 2(2): 7-9.

Keynes J. M. (1960) [1936], The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, London: Macmillan.

Knapp G. F. (1973) [1924], The State Theory of Money, New York: Augustus M Kelley.

Le Goff J. (2010), Le Moyen Âge et l’argent: Essai d’anthropologie historique, Paris: Perrin.

Littera G., L. Sartori, P. Dini, and P. Antoniadis (2017), “From an Idea to a Scalable Work-ing Model: Merging Economic Benefits with Social Values in Sardex”, International Journal of Community Currency Research, 1: 6-21.

Martignoni J. (2012), “A new approach to a typology of complementary currencies”, In-ternational Journal of Community Currency Research, 16(A): 1-17.

Mauss M. (1969) [1914], Les origines de la notion de monnai, in Œuvres, 2, Paris: Les Édi-tions de Minuit.

Menger K. (1892), “On the Origins of Money”, Economic Journal, 2(6): 239-255.

Motta W., P. Dini, and L. Sartori (2017), “Self-Funded Social Impact Investment: An Inter-disciplinary Analysis of the Sardex Mutual Credit System”, Journal of Entrepreneurship, 8: 1-16.

Moyer L. (2015), “An Impact Assessment Model for Web-Based Time Banks. Thought-Experiment in the Operationalization of Social Capital”, The Journal of Sustainable De-velopment, 14(2): 106-125.

Nakazato H., T. Hiramoto (2012), “An Empirical Study of the Social Effects of Community Currencies”, International Journal of Community Currency Research, 16(D): 124-135.

Ostrom E. (2005), Understanding Institutional Diversity, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Pintaldi F. (2003), I dati ecologici nella ricerca sociale, Roma: Carocci.

Place C. (2018), “Impact Assessment of Monetary Innovation: Sustainability with Existing Frameworks and Integral Approach”, International Journal of Community Currency Re-search, 22(Winter): 74-88.

Place C., L. Bindewald (2015), “Validating and Improving the Impact of Complementary Currency Systems through Impact Assessment Frameworks”, International Journal of Community Currency Research, 19(Summer): 152-164.

Polanyi K. (1977), The livelihood of man, New York: Academic Press.

Sartori L. (2017), Sardex, a Complementary Currency that Shapes a New Financial Space, Conference proceedings, SISEC.

Sartori L., P. Dini (2016), “From Complementary Currency to Institution: A Micro-Macro Study of the Sardex Mutual Credit System”, Stato e Mercato, 107: 273-304.

Schumpeter J. A. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credits, Interest, and the Business Cycle. Piscataway: Transaction Publishers.

Seyfang G., N. Longhurst (2013), “Growing green money? Mapping community currencies for sustainable development”, Ecological Economics, 86: 65-77.

Seyfang G., N. Longhurst (2016), “What Influences the Diffusion of Grassroots Innova-tions for Sustainability? Investigating Community Currency Niches”, Technology Anal-ysis & Strategic Management, 28(1): 1-23.

Seyfang G. (2006), “New Institutions for Sustainable Consumption: An Evaluation of Community Currencies”, Regional Studies, 40(7): 781-791.

Tymoigne É., L. R. Wray (2007), “Money: An Alternative Story”, in Arestis P., M. C. Sawyer (eds.), A Handbook of Alternative Monetary Economics, Richmond Hill: Firefly Books.

Vercellone C., F. Brancaccio, A. Giuliani and P. Vattimo (2017), Il Comune come modo di produzione. Per una critica dell’economia politica dei beni comuni, Verona: ombre cor-te.

Yunus, M. (2011), Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Hu-manity's Most Pressing Needs, New York: PublicAffairs.

Zelizer V. (1994), The Social Meaning of Money, New York: Basic Books.

Downloads

Published

21-04-2020

Issue

Vol. 13, No. 1 (2020). Special Issue on:“The Cultural Side of Populism” & “Rethinking Money, Rebuilding Community”

Section

Special Issue/2

License

Authors who publish with PACO agree to the Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial-Share alike 3.0 Italian License

Copyrights of each article are hold by the University of Salento.

PACO allows author(s) to retain publishing rights under permission of the Editorial Staff. But Authors are requested to always indicate that the first version of the article has been published in "Partecipazione e conflitto".