Community Currency Research Articles

Collective intentions of the social economy: An experiment on the community currency of the French Basque country

Community currencies (CCs) are common social economy instruments for aligning market transactions with social commitments. They change incentives, encouraging trade within the CC network, but may also symbolize and thereby amplify users’ commitment to social values of solidarity and cooperation. The behavioral effect of the second channel, moreover, is clouded by endogenous use of the CC: commitment encourages use, but does use also trigger commitment? We disentangle the direction of causality with a lab-in-the-field ultimatum game experiment, which confronts participants with a choice between more or less competitive responses. By exogenously varying the currency in which the game is played (CC or euros), we isolate the causal effect of the CC on behavior. Self-declared regular users of the currency are less competitive when playing in the CC than when playing in euros. This is not due to unobserved differences in the individuals, because when playing in euros, their behavior is the same as non-users’. Nor is it due to non-convertibility of the CC, as non-users’ behavior is not affected by the currency. We therefore isolate the CC as a “trigger of cooperativeness” for those who have a base-level of commitment to it.

Community Currencies for a More Just and Equitable Society

To address systemic inequalities in our world, we need to re-imagine money, how it flows, and how it can be used as a tool for prosperity rather than a tool that deepens economic and social divides within communities. Most current monetary systems reward extractive tendencies, disassociating us from each other and from nature. These maladaptive systems alienate and suppress vulnerable communities, defining their value to society in reductive economic terms. Consequently, other inherent skills and resources that a community offers are overlooked. This article explores how community currencies, defined as local forms of exchange designed to support and strengthen local economies, can be tools for shared prosperity. It examines how these new social technologies have the potential to redesign how money flows in a more holistic and beneficial way.

Land and Forgiveness: How One Woman’s Dream to Free the Land is Breaking New Ground

This article explores the cultural, economic, and ecological challenges of the Die Bevryde Grond Trust and communities of the larger Valley of Grace in the Breede River Basin of South Africa. It examines how ‘Deep Forgiveness’ inspires acts of practical love through reconciliation, restoration, and regeneration. This is the story of Aletta Venter, a South African farmer and descendent of European colonials, who created the Die Bevryde Grond Trust, or Freed Land Trust, to prioritize land stewardship over land ownership. It chronicles Venter’s pursuit of emerging technologies (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, blockchain, tokenization, and community currencies) as the new plows and seeders to actualize her bold dream to free the land. Venter’s story touches on all four cornerstones of Riane Eisler’s Partnership Framework: Gender, Family/Childhood, Economics, and Language/Narrative. Eisler urges that clarity of vision is required for new ideas to be translated into new realities. Venter embodies this vision by partnering with Indigenous farmers, technologists, and social scientists, to forge a new narrative of our enduring relationship with The Land.

Prefigurative imaginaries: Giving the unbanked in Kenyan informal settlements the power to issue their own currency

As corporate social responsibility research increasingly focuses on the role of grassroots organizations in challenging business practices, there remains a gap in understanding how these organizations prefigure alternatives to the prevailing business status quo. This study addresses this gap by developing a framework of prefigurative imaginaries, drawing from a qualitative study of a grassroots organization confronting the social irresponsibility of the Kenyan banking system in serving the poor. The framework captures how grassroots organizations use imaginaries to prefigure an alternative community currency system for enacting and foreshadowing social change. However, when attempts were made to scale up the system, these actions became disjointed, resulting in cracks within the imaginaries and the eventual abandonment of the system. Our study contributes to corporate social responsibility research by broadening its scope to include grassroots organizations and unveiling how they prefigure social change in marginalized contexts. By highlighting the significant influence of imaginaries on experiences and practices, this study underscores their role in shaping the acceptance or rejection of grassroots initiatives by the communities they aim to serve. It has implications for scholars and practitioners interested in understanding the role of imaginaries in shaping community-driven initiatives and advancing social change agendas.

“GAMING THE SYSTEM”: HOW COMMUNITIES STRATEGIZE AROUND CURRENCIES, CONVERTIBILITY AND CASH TRANSFERS IN KENYA

We draw from ongoing empirical research on the evolution of community currencies in Kenya, to analyse ways through which beneficiaries of cash transfers mediated by a community cryptocurrency – Sarafu – appropriate power and assert agency to obtain optimum financial benefits of the development intervention. We found that beneficiaries of the intervention have developed a deep knowledge of converting Sarafu to donor-funded cash transfers in the national currency. Consequently, the beneficiaries innovatively game conversion rules, both as individual efforts and collective action, to increase the economic benefits they draw from the cash transfers. We argue that development beneficiaries, instead of merely being subjects of development intervention, are active makers of their own economic lives and have a profound understanding of development projects, which they creatively exploit for their own benefit. By doing so, we further argue, beneficiaries contribute to the continuous structuring of interventions by putting development agencies on their toes and forcing them to revise their approaches and strengthen weak points. We conclude that assigning agency to development beneficiaries has the theoretical benefit of unravelling and appreciating the multidirectional flows of power in development assistance. Findings call for the need to involve beneficiaries in development interventions from its very conception.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0177/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

A multiplex network approach to the self-organizing bonding and bridging social capital fostered among local residents: A case study of community currency in Korea under the Hanbat LETS

A variety of community currency systems have been adopted, implemented, and terminated among the local communities of Korea over the last two decades. Despite its volatility due to the economic, social, and political environmental changes occurring in Korean society, the Hanbat local exchange trading system (LETS) is regarded as an innovative practice in grassroots community currency schemes based on trust and cooperation among local residents and plays a critical role in promoting community rebuilding and the formation of a sharing economy in this area. This study is aimed at empirically investigating the microprocesses underlying the formation of multiple types of social capital—bonding, bridging, and linking social capital—that were observed in the transactions among the Hanbat LETS members through inferential network analysis. The findings show that bonding and bridging social capital coexist in both a singular (or uniplex) type and in distinct (or multiplex) types of transactional tie developments among the participants through this community currency system. By examining the ways in which these multiple types of social capital are fostered through a bottom-up approach focused on a community currency system, the results of this study suggest the potential roles played by peer-to-peer support exchanges and the sharing economy in a local community.

Design principles for sustainable community currency projects

AbstractCommunity currencies (CCs) are alternative forms of money usually issued and managed by citizens, NGOs and companies as well as local public administrations. Used to trade goods and services in limited territories or among a certain community, CCs are composed of symbolic, cultural, and social dimensions and fully immersed in particular economic and institutional contexts. Despite the increasing adoption of CCs, the discussion on guiding principles and values to address their purposes, particularly in relation to environmental sustainability issues is still scarce in the literature. Given this gap, this paper relies on the following research question: what are the design principles to be considered for community currency projects oriented to sustainable development goals? We follow the design science research paradigms to describe the design principles of a CC project. We analyze the institutional and economic context in which they are implemented, the goals for what they were created, the processes and mechanisms to rely upon their operation, and how they are evaluated according to their specific goals and to their implications to the sustainable development goals. It is important to emphasize that in this article we focus on improving the understanding of CC projects and what should be considered in their evaluation, however not to the extent on how they should be implemented. The design principles framework presented in this paper specifies guidelines to discuss principles to be considered within a range of different possibilities of diversified CC implementation strategies.

Community-based management for low-digitalized communities using cross-cutting purchasing behavior

The need for community-based management to revitalize the economy of commercial areas by using consumer behavior analysis focusing on transactions has increased. Low-digitalized shopping communities, commercial communities that include retailing that have not introduced digital technologies, require community-based management using consumer behavior analysis. However, low-digitalized shopping communities cannot collect cross-cutting consumer behavior data using digital technologies such as point of sales (POS) systems. This difficulty obscures the novel management potential of applying such customer behavior analysis to community-based management. Our study aims to bridge the gap between low-digitalized shopping communities and community-based management using customer behavior analysis. To achieve this purpose, this study proposed a novel management approach using data collected using paper-based community currencies and its analysis method. Two field experiments were performed in low-digitalized shopping communities in Japan using two types of community currencies: from-to (FT) and customer attributes (CA). This study illustrated the possibility of community-based management in low-digitalized shopping communities and extending conventional retailing management methods using customer behavior analysis to community-based management.

Codesigned Digital Tools for Social Engagement in Climate Change Mitigation

Digital technologies and economies can strengthen participative processes and data- and knowledge-based sustainable urban development. It can also accelerate social integration and the efforts of urban dwellers towards more resilient urban environments. Gap: Most of the tools that strengthen participatory processes were not cocreated with stakeholders. Research shows that codesigned platforms driven by new technological advances and the development of collaborative sharing economy concepts can increase climate change awareness. Still, the rise of participatory innovation technologies does not focus on enabling social engagement in climate change mitigation. Therefore, this paper addresses a research question: can a codesigned community currency stimulate bottom-up initiatives for climate change mitigation, and what is needed for such tools to succeed with the implementation of climate-responsive policies? The aim was to introduce an approach allowing us to codesign an application to encourage pro-environmental behaviors. Hence, the approach of this research was to define the concept of such a tool as a part of a cocreation process with stakeholders in a multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral environment. Method: It uses design thinking enriched with case studies evaluation, workshops, UX design, low fidelity, SUS, and testbeds. Findings and value: The authors introduce the Greencoin concept and argue that the codesigned digital currency operating based on an educational application has the potential to strengthen social engagement in climate change mitigation. Beneficiaries and practical implementation: Such a tool can increase climate awareness by supporting social integration and bottom-up initiatives for climate change mitigation. It can therefore be used by local communities to strengthen their climate-responsive efforts.

RLabs Youth Cafés and the Zlto Exchange system

ABSTRACT This article presents a study of a youth café initiative for skills training in South Africa where a reward system with community currency (the ZE system) is implemented on smartphones to promote personal development and prepare youth for the job market in socially challenged communities. The youth receive currency in exchange for taking part in skills training and community work that can be spent on services and consumables in the local community. This study assesses the qualitative performance of the ZE system and youth café operation, through an inductive qualitative analysis of interviews with youth café visitors and staff. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a lens, the analysis focuses on how the youth café operation supports motivation for personal development. Results indicate that the youth cafés provide a platform for developing self-determination and promoting personal development. However, this is not a result from the ZE system alone, but rather from how it is embedded in the supportive environment of the youth cafés, as well as the integration of the youth café operation in the local communities. In conclusion, the youth café operation, with its digital reward system, may be viewed as an example of an empowering socio-technology for development.

Circulation of a digital community currency

Circulation is the characteristic feature of successful currency systems, from community currencies to cryptocurrencies to national currencies. In this paper, we propose a network analysis approach especially suited for studying circulation given a system’s digital transaction records. Sarafu is a digital community currency that was active in Kenya over a period that saw considerable economic disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We represent its circulation as a network of monetary flow among the 40,000 Sarafu users. Network flow analysis reveals that circulation was highly modular, geographically localized, and occurring among users with diverse livelihoods. Across localized sub-populations, network cycle analysis supports the intuitive notion that circulation requires cycles. Moreover, the sub-networks underlying circulation are consistently degree disassortative and we find evidence of preferential attachment. Community-based institutions often take on the role of local hubs, and network centrality measures confirm the importance of early adopters and of women’s participation. This work demonstrates that networks of monetary flow enable the study of circulation within currency systems at a striking level of detail, and our findings can be used to inform the development of community currencies in marginalized areas.

Digital Community Currency Usability From the User’s Eyes: Cases of Sarafu and Maendeleo Trading Credit (MTCR.)

Day by day, users demand systems that fulfill their expectations. Often, users of a system are dissatisfied because systems do not meet their expectations. Indeed, user expectations vary, including unrealistic expectations –those that are without regard for constraints such as budget, time, manpower and so on. Even so, place of users’ involvement in system development and implementation need to be recognized. Usability is an important aspect in system development and implementation. It is necessary to have an elaborate understanding of usability from the ‘eyes’ of a user. This study adopted the qualitative research design that employed triangulation. Two contemporary DCC cases of interest in this research study are: MTCr. in Kisumu; and the Sarafu in Nairobi. This paper espouses usability definitions and associated attributes. Specifically, this study established the meaning of digital community currency from the lens of the users.

Nothing to lose: the rationales of grassroots financial innovations in contexts of extreme scarcity

PurposeHighly deprived urban contexts, such as informal settlements in the global south, can turn into niches of extreme innovation and sparkle ingenuity out of necessity. But what are the rationales behind the participation of disadvantaged communities in social innovations? Why do they engage in grassroots innovations? What is it that makes these grassroots try novelties and continue experimenting with them, even when the perceived benefits are not clear yet? This paper aims to examine and conceptualize the rationales for engaging in grassroots financial innovations in the context of extremely deprived urban settings.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on the case of grassroots organizations which have started experimenting with the development of a community currency in Kisumu, Kenya. This paper is informed by in-depth interviews with members of three grassroots organizations involved in the community currency, together with observations and meeting participation since 2019.FindingsThe rationales argued by the participants for engaging in this grassroots innovation are framed in various ways: as a means for seeking poverty alleviation (the development framing); as a challenge to conventional imaginaries of innovations (the digital framing); and as an innovation embedded in community and trust relations (the community framing). These framings have a mobilizing effect that initially draws participants into the innovation. Yet, what explains persistent participation despite the decreasing influence of these framings over time is the organizational space and strategies of incompleteness accommodating these experiments.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the emerging body of grassroots innovations movements literature. While research has progressed in its understandings of the challenges of scaling up innovative practices, the examination of the grassroots initiatives stemming from extremely deprived settings, and the rationales and framings behind, have been under examined. This paper comes to bridge this gap.

Effects of Community Currency Systems on Economic Growth Dynamics of Small-Scale Tradersin Kibuye Market, an Informal Urban Settlement

Effects of Community Currency Systems on Economic Growth Dynamics of Small-Scale Tradersin Kibuye Market, an Informal Urban Settlement

Ant Forest - China's low-carbon consumption practices driven by a community currency mechanism

Ant Forest - China's low-carbon consumption practices driven by a community currency mechanism

Navigating uncertainty in networks of social exchange: a relational event study of a community currency system

Abstract This article analyzes the structure of socially embedded exchange under uncertainty in the context of a community currency system in Germany. We discuss three relational and path-dependent mechanisms—experience-based trust, networked reputation and public reputation—which serve as navigation practices to mitigate uncertainty. We furthermore associate these mechanisms with observable structures of exchange, namely repeated transactions and reciprocity, transitivity and provider activity, and discuss differences in product-inherent uncertainty as a source of variation in network structure. Based on original observations of more than 4000 transactions over a period of 8 years, we use relational event models to demonstrate that the history of transactions exhibits structure consistent with the three hypothesized mechanisms, with some variation across different types of transactions. This variation is partly in line with differences in product-inherent uncertainty, but we also discuss alternative sources of variation related to organizational and institutional conditions of the exchange system.

Community Currency and Economic Dynamics of Traders in Informal Urban Settlements

Majority of world population live in poverty and struggle to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, access to water and sanitation. Past studies indicate resources deprivation among residents in informal settlements. In Africa, 43% of individuals are living in destitution in urban territories a proportion which compares with 59% of people living in poverty in rural areas. Due to high rate of poverty the traders in urban informal settlements are unable to access financial services to unlock their business potential. This study focused on the influence of community currency on economic dynamics of community groups and networks among traders in the informal settlement in Kenya. This study was guided by Social Capital theory and SCALERS Model. The study results indicated a high correlation between community currency indicators and growth of small scale business among traders in urban informal settlements (R = .871 a ). The variation in growth of business of traders in informal settlement is explained upto 75.8% by community currency (R 2 = .758). further, the interaction between Community currency and entrepreneurial network on growth of businesses of traders in informal urban settlements reveal that the moderating effect of entrepreneurial network caused 77.0% of the variance in growth of small-scale business of traders in informal urban settlements (R 2 = .770). This shows that entrepreneurial network has a positive and significant moderating effect on growth of business of traders in the informal settlement. Keywords: Community Currency, Informal Settlements, Traders, Growth DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/13-22-07 Publication date: November 30 th 2022

Joining Policy Forums Together to Develop Ki-no-Eki, a Community Currency System for Forest Management in Japan: Dynamics of Policy Communication Networks

In some mountainous areas of Japan, the Ki-no-Eki system, in which wood is collected to thin the forest and is exchanged for community currency, has been specifically designed and implemented as a solution to current and emerging forest governance issues. This study aimed to capture the evolutionary processes of a complete communication network consisting of organizations that joined policy forums to help develop the Ki-no-Eki system. A total of 26 policy forums were held from 2011 to 2019 to discuss the adoption and implementation of the Ki-no-Eki system across Japan, and coattendance and the resultant policy discourses among 62 participating Ki-no-Eki organizations in these forums were regarded as dynamic communication network processes. We analyzed how policy communication networks formed and evolved to understand the underlying network dynamics driven by not only endogenous network processes—bonding and bridging social capital—but also exogenous effects defined by actors’ attributes. We employed the stochastic actor-oriented model for network dynamics to manage the collected longitudinal undirected network data. We found (i) the emergence of bonding social capital and (ii) homophilic and heterophilic connections in communication networks, which provided insightful explanations of the driving forces of social cohesion among Ki-no-Eki organizations engaged in forest management in Japan.

The Role of Motivated Financial Institutions on Community Currencies Loans

Community currencies have recently emerged as tools for assisting the disadvantaged. In order to make a contribution to the larger field of community currencies, the purpose of this research is to investigate how a financial institution evaluates community currency lending. We show, using an adverse selection model, the importance of the role of motivated financial institutions in the effectiveness of community currency loans for small entrepreneurs. If those institutions are unmotivated, the market collapses, and only traditional loans are offered. Additionally, if there is enough intrinsic motivation, the size of the loans also increases, which is beneficial to the borrowers. Finally, this paper emphasizes the importance of subsidies in this sector, which act as catalysts by increasing the likelihood that community currency loans will be offered, as well as increasing loan sizes.

Sustained circulation: A descriptive framework of long-lived Japanese community currencies

In spite of varied and sometimes underwhelming results, community currencies (CCs) continue to demonstrate potential for inducing beneficial regional development by means of technological innovation and creditable social outcomes. However, outside of the Western context, much still needs to be understood regarding their operation and management. Long-term durability in particular has been an issue that has been observed with CCs around the world. This paper aims to shed more light on this aspect of CC research from the Japanese perspective by formulating a descriptive framework of long-lived Japanese CCs. In order to accomplish this, 12 Japanese CC organizations that have each operated for at least a decade are investigated using a Grounded Theory approach (GT). The GT methodology was applied to a primary data set of transcribed interviews with CC leaders and organizers. This was supplemented by currency circulation reports, surveys among CC users, and observation of CC activities for the purposes of data triangulation. Leadership Continuity emerged as the core theme uniting these diverse organizations. An exploration of this theme reveals 3 broad operating forms of long-lived Japanese CCs, namely, LETS Passbook Communities, Subsidized Coupon Type CCs, and Non-Subsidized Coupon Type CCs. Additionally, 3 reliable funding strategies and 2 reinforcement factors were observed among the more robust organizations.