Community currencies and sustainability: Three case-studies

Patri, Luciana

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Community currencies and sustainability: Three case-studies

Patri, Luciana

Abstract

The présent thesis explores the working mechanisms of three alternative community currency Systems as tools to promote sustainable behavior: the créditas in Argentinian barter networks, the Ithaca HOURS in upstate New York, and the NuSpaarpas in Rotterdam, Netherlands. A chapter is dedicated to the analysis of each System's origins, évolution and sustainability achievements, which are measured in terms of localization, réduction of ecological footprint, community building, collective action and the building of new social and économie institutions. These fîve parameters are based on an alternative concept of économies, which emphasizes the function of money as a médium of exchange among a society's members. By transforming the traditional production and consomption possibilities of mainstream money, community currencies contribute to solve several adverse économie, social and ecological effects of globalization.