Money and Liberation: The Micropolitics of Alternative Currency Movements

by Peter North

Overview

Is conventional money simply a discourse? Is it merely a socially constructed unit of exchange? If money is not an actual thing, are people then free to make collective agreements to use other forms of currency that might work more effectively for them? Proponents of “better money” argue that they have created currencies that value people more than profitability, ensuring that human needs are met with reasonable costs and decent wages—and supporting local economies that emphasize local sustainability. How did proponents develop these new economies? Are their claims valid?

Grappling with these questions and more, Money and Liberation examines the experiences of groups who have tried to build a more equitable world by inventing new forms of money. Presenting in-depth profiles of the trading networks that have been constructed both historically and more recently, including Local Exchange Trading Schemes (England), Green Dollars (New Zealand), Talente (Hungary), and the barter system in Argentina, Peter North shows how the use of currency has been redefined as part of political action, revealing surprising political ambiguity and a nuanced understanding of the potential and limits on alternative currencies as a resistance practice.

Peter North is lecturer in geography at the University of Liverpool.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816649631
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	04/30/2007
Edition description:	First edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.89(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Peter North is a reader in alternative economies at the University of Liverpool.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction Thinking Economies Otherwise     xi
Beyond the Veil? Money and Economies     1
The Politics of Monetary Contestation     19
Utopians, Anarchists, and Populists: The Politics of Money in the Nineteenth Century     41
Twentieth-Century Utopians: Gesell and Douglas     62
New Money New Work? Lets in the United Kingdom     79
Kalaka and Kor: Green Money, Mutual Aid, and Transition in Hungary     102
The Longevity of Alternative Economic Practices: Green Dollars in Aotearoa/New Zealand     126
Surviving Financial Meltdown: Argentina's Barter Networks     149
Conclusion: The Ghosts of Marx and Simmel?     174
Notes     183
Bibliography     187
Index     201