Complementary Currency Systems Bridging Communities : Proceedings of 6th Biennial RAMICS Congress, 27-29 October, 2022, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria
This paper is an attempt to design a methodology to systematize and analyze possible monetary designs that promote sustainable modes of production and consumption, rooted in local practices and knowledges. Based on data from case studies on three complementary currencies in the Basque Country performed in 2017 (the Ekhi, the Eusko and the Txantxi) this paper proposes a conceptualization of money as an actant, as seen through the lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Money is thereby seen as the result of an ecology of interactions within the network and, as such, is shaped by processes like technological innovations, public regulation, conflict of interests between key actors designing, regulating and using the currencies, relations with other currencies, symbolic objects and values. In the light of ANT, money is approached in its dynamism: It may affect society and Nature, depending on the interactions taking place in the network. From this theoretical standpoint, the paper proposes a methodology mapping the actors of the currencies, thereby identifying the manner in which they associate the different elements of a monetary design, whether it be technical, social or natural. The paper illustrates the functioning of the ANT as a methodology of study by describing all the operations of associations that took place in an experience in the Spanish Basque Country: the Txantxi, which as a social project was terminated by the unicipality in 2017. The case study thus provide useful information on how the currency takes different forms as it interacts with an ecology of relations with different actors (human and non-human), like the geographical and symbolic territory, the technological design, the relationship with the Euro, the relationship with different agendas relating to sustainability such as agroecology and localization of the economy. The paper draws some preliminary conclusions on the mapping of the different actors that supported the functioning of the CCs, bringing light into the complexity
of money, which is not just a mere “one size fits all”-tool but a specific network shaped by society, and as an actor interacting, at the same time, with nature, economy and society.
Radeljak, F. A Methodological Approach to Address the Role of CCs in Sustainability. Sofia: Monetary and Economic Research Center /MRC/, 2023 416-428,.
Radeljak, F. A Methodological Approach to Address the Role of CCs in Sustainability. Sofia: Monetary and Economic Research Center /MRC/, 2023 416-428,.
Radeljak, F. (2023) A Methodological Approach to Address the Role of CCs in Sustainability, Sofia: Monetary and Economic Research Center /MRC/ 416-428,.
Radeljak, F. (2023). A Methodological Approach to Address the Role of CCs in Sustainability. Sofia: Monetary and Economic Research Center /MRC/, 416-428.
Radeljak F. A Methodological Approach to Address the Role of CCs in Sustainability. Sofia: Monetary and Economic Research Center /MRC/; 2023. p. 416-428.
