Creating Resilient Communities

Abstract

Money is a human invention; it can be redesigned to fulfill today's needs. Local currencies are economic and social instruments, operating as supplements to conventional money. Local currencies can serve multiple purposes, including: stimulating the local economy, building an active social network and encouraging sustainable consumption. This chapter focuses on social local currencies and time banks and attempts to answer the question, how they can contribute to the local development and help to build a resilient community. The objectives of this chapter are to analyze what local currency is and how it works, and to provide operational information on how to build currency systems and time banks. The chapter also gives case study insights on how different communities and eco-villages in the world have managed to create resilient economies with local currencies. The chapter concludes by putting forward the significance of the resilient communities, thus contributing to the long-term goal of sustainable development.